PARIS (AP) – Dani Alves took Paris Saint-Germain a step closer to the French title on Sunday, scoring his first league goal of the season with a late header as PSG won 2-1 at Nice.
The 34-year-old Brazilian defender met midfielder Adrien Rabiot’s astute curling pass over the defense with a powerful header into the bottom right corner.
PSG is 17 points clear of defending champion Monaco. It would take a monumental collapse for PSG to miss out on winning a fifth title in six seasons. PSG has seven games left and Monaco has eight.
Nice beat PSG 3-1 in a dominant performance at the end of April last year, dealing a decisive blow to PSG’s title hopes, and competed well this time.
Mario Balotelli starred in that match, and he was involved in Nice’s opening goal in the 17th minute.
He expertly chested down a high ball to the feet of strike partner Alassane Plea near the halfway line, and his pass sent Allan Saint-Maximin scampering though. He finished coolly, clipping the ball past goalkeeper Alphonse Areola and into the bottom left corner.
Four minutes later, Angel Di Maria took advantage of slack defending to equalize. Given too much space on the left, he flicked the ball through Brazilian defender Dante’s legs and then guided it in with the outside of his right foot. It was his ninth goal in 25 league games and he needs one more to match his career-best tally.
The match started at 1 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) to capture a prime-time television audience in Asia. This follows on from the opening of a French league football office in Beijing, China last year.
Shanghai TV and Guangzhou TV showed the match live to a combined 40 million viewers, the LFP said. The match was also broadcast live in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong-Kong and Singapore.
Saint-Maximin used his pace to get behind PSG’s static defense again five minutes after the break, but Areola saved his shot with his legs.
Areola then kept out Balotelli’s curler from the edge of the penalty area, after Saint-Maximin set him up. Balotelli was busy, smacking over a free kick with 20 minutes left and hitting the crossbar with a glancing header from a corner five minutes later.
At the other end, striker Kylian Mbappe wastefully headed over Di Maria’s pass from the left in the 79th.
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OTHER MATCHES
Later Sunday, third-place Marseille faced fourth-place Lyon, with Lyon Bruno Genesio under pressure following elimination from the Europa League on Thursday. Lyon failed to reach the quarterfinals after losing 3-2 at home to CSKA Moscow, going out on away goals after winning 1-0 in Russia.
Also, it was Metz vs. Nantes and Saint-Etienne vs. Guingamp.
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