Taking to Parc des Princes soil for the final time in 2023, Paris Saint-Germain aim to end the calendar year on a high when Metz tackle the Ligue 1 champions on Wednesday night.
Luis Enrique’s side were held to an agonising 1-1 draw by Lille at the weekend, while their newly-promoted visitors slumped to a 1-0 home defeat to Montpellier HSC.
Despite netting no fewer than 12 goals in their pair of fixtures with Lille at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in 2022, PSG’s previous attacking excellence on Les Dogues’ turf counted for little on Sunday, where the champions needed a Kylian Mbappe penalty to break the deadlock deep into the second half.
However, as Luis Enrique introduced fresh legs onto the scene in a bid to see the game out, one PSG substitute inadvertently helped a fellow Lille replacement to snatch a point from the jaws of defeat, as Marco Asensio’s poor pass out from the back ended with Jonathan David heading home the equaliser four minutes into added-on time.
Perhaps nursing a minor European hangover from their Champions League last 16-clinching draw with Borussia Dortmund in midweek, where Les Parisiens were once again left to rue wastefulness in the final third, Les Parisiens were grateful to see Monaco and Nice fail to capitalise on their dropped points to remain comfortably clear at the summit.
Unbeaten in 11 top-flight contests – winning eight on the spin before being forced to accept a slice of the spoils at Lille – PSG boast a five-point advantage over Nice in first place and will not be back in Ligue 1 action for almost a month once Wednesday’s game is done and dusted; Trophee des Champions and Coupe de France commitments take precedence in the early weeks of January.
David’s last-gasp Lille leveller at the weekend means that PSG host Metz having only kept one clean sheet from their last six outings across all competitions, but each of their last five Ligue 1 contests at the Parc des Princes has ended in victory for the champions, who have a whopping 17 goals to show from that quintet of matches.
