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Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola scored to help Paris St Germain beat Le Mans and reach the Coupe de France quarter-finals.
Coupe de France: PSG beat Le Mans (X)
Paris St Germain reached the French Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday, with Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola scoring in each half to earn a 2-0 win at third-tier Le Mans.
“It was a typical Coupe de France match. Dangerous, unpredictable. There are a lot of things you can’t control. But I think we did a good job,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said.
Elsewhere, second-tier Dunkerque reached the quarters by beating top-flight Lille on penalties after a 1-1 draw while Brest eliminated Ligue 2 side Troyes with a 2-1 win.
Hosts Le Mans almost delivered an early shock against PSG as Gabin Bernardeau found an unmarked Theo Eyoum in the box, but his effort hit the side netting.
Le Mans sat back in an effort to frustrate the Ligue 1 leaders, who are unbeaten in all competitions since November, and it took 17 minutes for PSG to have their first shot, which Lee Kang-in put well over the bar from outside the box.
The hosts’ attempts to hold off PSG were undone by a defensive mistake in the 25th minute, when Alexandre Lauray’s attempted pass was blocked by Goncalo Ramos on the edge of the box. The ball reached Doue, who buried it into the bottom-left corner.
Le Mans had a free kick just outside the box in added time of the first half, but Lauray’s set-piece came off the wall, and his second attempt went just wide of the near post.
Barcola replaced Doue in the 68th minute and within three minutes he was on the scoresheet as he got hold of a lofted ball from Nuno Mendes, sprinted into the Le Mans box and finished at the near post.
PSG almost scored a third a minute later but Le Mans keeper Ewan Hatfout denied Achraf Hakimi.
Le Mans did not give up, and almost scored just before the 90th minute, but Dame Gueye’s acrobatic attempt off Zaid Amir’s cross was kept out by an alert Matvey Safonov.
“We are in the quarter-finals and we were able to give the players some minutes and a rest, so we have to be happy,” Luis Enrique added.
Leaders PSG host third-placed Monaco in a Ligue 1 clash on Friday.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Reuters)
