PSG handed coach Antoine Kombouare a first victory in charge when they beat Le Mans at the Parc des Princes in a thriller.
After some moments of uncertainty, Le Mans settled well into the game, controlling possession and restricting the flow of chances their opponents enjoyed. They seemed to lose their grip on things after 13 minutes, when some excellent play from Stephane Sessegnon saw him leave the visiting rearguard in tatters. From a tight angle his shot beat Rodolphe Roche, but Gregory Cerdan cleared from the line.
Despite the onslaught, Le Mans roared in to the lead when a long ball forward was flicked on by Modibo Maiga, who picked out Thorstein Helstad.And the Norwegian got beyond PSG’s centre-backs and rattled a shot into the net via the post.
On his home debut, Mevlut Erding drew the sides level with a terrific goal, in which he displayed skill, pace and no small eye for the bottom corner of the net.
This led to a good spell of pressure before half-time, with Giuly going close, and then Roche making a double-save from the ex-Barcelona man and then the Turk.
PSG found a way, to take the lead via a long ball into the Le Mans box, which was misjudged by Frederic Thomas, who somehow managed to beat Roche.
But the advantage was nearly quickly surrendered, as Maiga was allowed to march through the defence unchecked before Gregory Coupet came to his side’s rescue with a key block, and later touching away another Maiga drive.
Such a save proved decisive, as PSG quickly added a third, Ludovic Giuly latching onto Erding’s through ball to seal the points with nine minutes to go.
