Barcola strikes as PSG fight back to beat Lens / Photo: © AFP
Barcola strikes as PSG fight back to beat Lens
Bradley Barcola showed new signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia he will not easily give up his place in the Paris Saint-Germain line-up as his late strike gave the Ligue 1 leaders a 2-1 win at Lens on Saturday.
It looked like PSG were going to drop points in their last domestic outing before next Wednesday's crunch Champions League clash with Manchester City as they fell behind in the first half to Mbala Nzola's goal for Lens.
However, Barcola set up Fabian Ruiz to equalise for PSG just before the hour mark, and the France winger then lashed in a fine winning goal with four minutes left.
Luis Enrique's side remain unbeaten domestically this season and are now 10 points clear at the top of Ligue 1 from Marseille, who host Strasbourg on Sunday.
PSG, who were without Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos and the ill Ousmane Dembele in Lens, now face Pep Guardiola's City in a crucial European encounter.
The French champions sit one point and one place outside the qualifying places for the knockout phase and so can ill afford to lose to City at the Parc des Princes.
Kvaratskhelia, brought in to contest a spot on the left wing with Barcola, was not involved in Lens, having only completed his reported 70 million-euro ($72m) transfer to PSG from Napoli late on Friday.
The Georgian is also not eligible to play against City or in their final league phase match of the Champions League away to VfB Stuttgart on January 29.
However, Luis Enrique is excited to see what Kvaratskhelia can add to the PSG team in the second half of the season.
"He has everything we want from a new signing, experience acquired as a young player, character, and an ability to score goals, take players on, and help out defensively," said PSG's coach of the 23-year-old.
"Our attack was very good today but he is an excellent reinforcement."
Barcola, Desire Doue and Lee Kang-in all started in the Paris attack at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, where Lens went ahead on 36 minutes.
The visiting defence failed to deal with a Przemyslaw Frankowski corner and the ball fell to Nzola at the back post, where he controlled before prodding in.
Nzola had the ball in the net again on 57 minutes but the offside flag had come up, and PSG then drew level only two minutes later.
Lens defender Malang Sarr committed himself inside the box but didn't get the ball, allowing Barcola to seize possession and cut it back for Spain midfielder Ruiz to fire in.
Barcola, 22, then hit a brilliant late winner as he came in off the left and controlled a Joao Neves pass before smashing a shot high into the net.
That was his 11th goal of the season in Ligue 1, allowing him to join Lille's Jonathan David and Marseille's Mason Greenwood at the top of the scorers charts.
I.Paterson--TNT
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