SAINT-ETIENNE, France — Lionel Messi set up all three goals as Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) stretched their Ligue 1 lead to 12 points with a 3-1 comeback win at 10-man Saint-Etienne on Sunday, while Neymar was taken off on a stretcher with a possible ankle injury.
PSG made the most of Timothee Kolodziejczak’s red card on the stroke of half time. Messi fed Marquinhos for two headed goals and Angel Di Maria struck to seal a clinical turnaround after Les Verts had opened the scoring through Denis Bouanga.
The result put the capital side on 40 points from 15 games, with Stade Rennais leapfrogging Nice into second after goals by Gaetan Laborde and Jeremy Doku earned them a 2-0 win at Lorient, their sixth victory in their last seven league games.
St.-Etienne, who mounted a decent challenge despite being a man down as snow fell on the Geoffroy Guichard stadium, is now bottom of the standings with 12 points.
The game marked Sergio Ramos’s debut for PSG, almost five months after joining from Real Madrid as a free agent, and the Spaniard started in central defense alongside Marquinhos. — Reuters