Soccer Football - France - Ligue 1 - Le Havre v Paris St Germain - Stade Oceane, Le Havre, France - December 3, 2023 Paris St Germain's Vitinha celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
LE HAVRE (Reuters) -Ten-man Paris St Germain claimed their seventh consecutive Ligue 1 win with a 2-0 victory at Le Havre on Sunday and stretched their lead at the top of the standings despite an early red card for their goalkeeper.
PSG moved to 33 points, four points clear of Nice who fell to their first defeat in a 1-0 loss at Nantes on Saturday, while Le Havre remain ninth on 16 points.
Gianluigi Donnarumma saw red in the 10th minute, the Italian coming out of his area to deal with a goal kick which sent Josue Casimir through on goal, but his mistimed attempt at a clearance caught the Nantes player in the head.
Luis Enrique sent on substitute keeper Arnau Tenas for his first PSG appearance in place of forward Bradley Barcola having already been forced into a change by an injury to Fabian Ruiz just minutes earlier.
PSG regained their composure and Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when he collected a pass from Ousmane Dembele on the edge of the area, took a touch to control and a step back before curling his shot in off the post.
Tenas kept PSG in front with a string of fine saves as the home side piled on the pressure in the second half, including a double save by the substitute at close range from Mohamed Bayo in the 58th minute.
The visitors wrapped up all three points in the 89th minute when a shot from Vitinha ricocheted off Le Havre defender Gautier Lloris and over the keeper.
Later on Sunday, third-placed AS Monaco beat Montpellier 2-0 at home, closing the gap to Nice to just two points after the second-placed side lost 1-0 to Nantes on Saturday.
Japanese attacker Takumi Minamino opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a close-range strike from a rebound for his second goal in as many games.
Montpellier's bid to launch a comeback was scuppered in the 69th minute as Boubakar Kouyate was sent off for a strong tackle on Minamino, before substitute Wissam Ben Yedder scored in the 92nd minute to wrap up the win for Monaco.
Ben Yedder's strike was his 100th home Ligue 1 goal, making him the first player to achieve the feat since ex-Olympique de Marseille and Bordeaux striker Jean-Pierre Papin did the same in 1996.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, additional reporting by Aadi Nair, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
