Second-half rally sees PSG go six points clear

PARIS (AFP) –

Paris Saint-Germain’s forward Ivan Lavezzi celebrates after scoring during their French L1 football match against Bastia, on February 8, 2013 at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris. Paris Saint-Germain shook off a lacklustre first half to defeat Bastia 3-1 and go six points clear at the top of Ligue 1.

Paris Saint-Germain shook off a lacklustre first half to defeat Bastia 3-1 on Friday and go six points clear at the top of Ligue 1 in a morale-boosting win ahead of their Champions League duty next week.

PSG, who will tackle Valencia on Tuesday in the first leg of their last 16 tie in Europe, moved onto 51 points, taking their recent run to 12 matches without defeat in all competitions.

Jeremy Menez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ezequiel Lavezzi were all on target for PSG although Wahbi Khazri’s 83rd-minute free-kick from 30 metres, which made the score 2-1, meant goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu’s proud unbeaten record ended at the 947-minute mark.

“We earned and took three points which was our objective,” said PSG coach Carlo Ancelotti.

“It’s true that the first half wasn’t very good, the second half was different. We can look forward to our next match with confidence.”

Menez put PSG ahead in the 56th minute with Ibrahimovic, who had started on the bench for the first time in his Ligue 1 career, making it 2-0 with a 71st-minute penalty.

After Khazri’s thunderbolt, Argentina international Lavezzi settled PSG’s nerves with an 89th-minute goal to put the pressure back on second-place Lyon who welcome Lille on Sunday.

Ancelotti insisted that Ibrahimovic had no arguments over being demoted to the bench.

“It wasn’t hard to convince Ibra, he understands that there are always risks of injuries and we need to avoid that,” said the coach.