PARIS: Ten-man Paris Saint-Germain beat Lille 2-1 in the French League Cup final at the Stade de France on Saturday to remain on course for a domestic clean sweep of titles.
The Ligue 1 champions took the lead five minutes before half-time in contentious circumstances, with Javier Pastore’s shot passing through the legs of an offside Layvin Kurzawa on its way into the net.
But Lille hit back shortly after the restart when Djibril Sidibe fired a free-kick through the wall and into the net. The capital city side were dealt a huge blow when Adrien Rabiot was shown a second yellow card for a cynical foul on the impressive Sofiane Boufal with 19 minutes remaining.
But a moment of madness from Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama allowed Angel Di Maria to roll in the winner with 16 minutes to play for his 15th goal of the season.
Laurent Blanc’s men now have three trophies this term with a French Cup final against Marseille to come, as they look to ease the pain of their Champions League quarter-final defeat to Manchester City.
PSG thrashed Bastia 4-0 12 months ago to seal a record fifth League Cup title, while Lille were playing in the final of the competition for the first time.
Blanc opted to play Lucas Moura alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Di Maria up front, leaving Edinson Cavani on the bench, while the returning Marco Verratti was named among the substitutes.
PSG should have taken the lead just 21 seconds in, but after being set up by Ibrahimovic, Di Maria drilled his shot from only 10 yards out straight at Enyeama, who made an excellent save.
