PSG Stays Perfect and Clinical Marseille Beats Unlucky Nice in French League

Paris Saint-Germain's French forward #10 Ousmane Dembele (L) celebrates scoring PSG's first goal with Paris Saint-Germain's Slovak defender #37 Milan Skriniar (R) during the French L1 football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Stade Brestois 29 (Brest) at The Parc des Princes Stadium, in Paris, on September 14, 2024. (AFP)
Paris Saint-Germain's French forward #10 Ousmane Dembele (L) celebrates scoring PSG's first goal with Paris Saint-Germain's Slovak defender #37 Milan Skriniar (R) during the French L1 football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Stade Brestois 29 (Brest) at The Parc des Princes Stadium, in Paris, on September 14, 2024. (AFP)
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PSG Stays Perfect and Clinical Marseille Beats Unlucky Nice in French League

Paris Saint-Germain's French forward #10 Ousmane Dembele (L) celebrates scoring PSG's first goal with Paris Saint-Germain's Slovak defender #37 Milan Skriniar (R) during the French L1 football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Stade Brestois 29 (Brest) at The Parc des Princes Stadium, in Paris, on September 14, 2024. (AFP)
Paris Saint-Germain's French forward #10 Ousmane Dembele (L) celebrates scoring PSG's first goal with Paris Saint-Germain's Slovak defender #37 Milan Skriniar (R) during the French L1 football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Stade Brestois 29 (Brest) at The Parc des Princes Stadium, in Paris, on September 14, 2024. (AFP)

Ousmane Dembele scored twice and Paris Saint-Germain remained perfect and prolific in the French league after beating Brest 3-1 on Saturday.

PSG stayed in command at the top of the standings with a fourth win in as many games.

Luis Enrique's team has coped with the departure of Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid and has 16 goals so far.

Brest goalkeeper Marco Bizot managed to keep PSG at bay until Dembele leveled the score three minutes before the interval. Romain Del Castillo put Brest ahead from the penalty spot at the Parc des Princes.

PSG then killed any remaining suspense in the space of 80 seconds when Fabian Ruiz scored in the 73rd with a powerful strike and Dembele completed his brace in the next minute.

Despite the millions of euros invested to build a competitive team since a 2011 takeover by Qatari investors, PSG is still chasing an elusive Champions League title. It will host Girona on Wednesday in Europe's top club competition.

Brest, which also qualified for the tournament with a third-place finish last season, plays Sturm Graz on Thursday.

Maupay scores in first Marseille start New Marseille striker Neal Maupay scored against his former club in a 2-0 win over Nice, which hit the woodwork three times.

On a day when Marseille celebrated its 125th anniversary, Maupay was handed his first start by coach Roberto De Zerbi.

Marseille had just five shots on target and scored twice to remain unbeaten, just two points behind PSG.

Maupay joined from English Premier League club Everton on a season loan with an obligation to buy. He was trained at Nice then went on to play 160 Premier League matches with various sides.

Maupay made up for Marseille’s inadequacies in the first half by converting a rare chance in the 40th minute. He headed the ball home past Nice goalkeeper Marcin Bulka after a cross from Luis Henrique in the penalty area took a deflection.

Marseille enjoyed most of the possession but Nice was the most dangerous side in the first half and Maupay’s opener came after Melvin Bard volleyed onto the left post.

Nice hit the posts two more times after the interval.

Luis Henrique turned provider early in the second half with a beautiful curled shot into the top left corner after a one-two with Amine Harit on the edge of the box.

Marseille finished the match with 10 men after center back Derek Cornelius took too much time over a free kick and received a second yellow card. Nice camped in Marseille's half in the last 10 minutes but good efforts from Marseille goalie Geronimo Rulli coupled with hard luck kept the visitors at bay.

Monaco stays unbeaten Monaco was a class above Auxerre and secured a deserved 3-0 away win with goals from Thilo Kehrer, Vanderson and Denis Zakaria.

The result moved the Principality side level on points with Marseille ahead of next week's Champions League tie with Barcelona.

Auxerre goalkeeper Donovan Leon made a costly mistake after just eight minutes when he fumbled the ball from Kehrer's header and let it in. Auxerre was then forced to take risks and was punished on the counter.

Switzerland midfielder Denis Zakaria was excellent, with one goal and one superb lofted assist for Vanderson.



Liverpool ‘Not up to Standard’ Slot Says after Shock Defeat to Nottingham Forest

Callum Hudson-Odoi of Nottingham Forest (L) celebrates scoring the 0-1 goal during the English Premier League match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in Liverpool, Britain, 14 September 2024. (EPA)
Callum Hudson-Odoi of Nottingham Forest (L) celebrates scoring the 0-1 goal during the English Premier League match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in Liverpool, Britain, 14 September 2024. (EPA)
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Liverpool ‘Not up to Standard’ Slot Says after Shock Defeat to Nottingham Forest

Callum Hudson-Odoi of Nottingham Forest (L) celebrates scoring the 0-1 goal during the English Premier League match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in Liverpool, Britain, 14 September 2024. (EPA)
Callum Hudson-Odoi of Nottingham Forest (L) celebrates scoring the 0-1 goal during the English Premier League match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in Liverpool, Britain, 14 September 2024. (EPA)

All good things come to an end. Few expected Liverpool’s good thing to end on Saturday.

An uncommon perfect run of three wins to start the English Premier League without conceding a goal came to a stunning end at Anfield where Nottingham Forest won for the first time since 1969.

Forest had 30% possession, three shots on target — all after halftime — and only two corners but Callum Hudson-Odoi curled a shot beyond the reach of Alisson in the 72nd minute and it held up in a 1-0 win.

Liverpool’s effort was scrappy as passes went astray and touches were often missed. The players looked like they hadn’t seen each other for two weeks.

The international break took away 10 players but manager Arne Slot said that was no excuse.

“It’s always difficult, but I don’t think it had anything to do with it,” Slot said.

“Players came back strong and I saw today a team that wanted to fight until the end. That wasn’t to do with energy.

“If you look at the goals we scored until now, we scored quite a few from transition moments from winning the ball back, but the other team (Forest) played over our press a lot with a lot of long balls.

“Too many individual performances in ball possession were not up to the standards that I’m used to from these players.”

Liverpool’s best chance was its first when Luis Diaz shot against the near post and the ball ricocheted across the face of the goal.

The amount of possession Liverpool had made the result that much more pitiful for Slot.

“We had a lot of ball possession but only managed to create three or four quite good chances. That’s by far not enough.

“If you have so much possession and play so much in their half we need to be much better. We lost the ball so many times in simple situations.

“It is a big setback. If you lose a home game that’s always a setback.”