Paris, Sep 1 (IANS) Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s hat-trick inspired French Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain to a 5-0 home victory over Saint Etienne, hours after leaders Bordeaux’s winning record was ended by a 1-1 draw with Bastia.
The only other game Sunday saw Metz upset Lyon 2-1, reports Xinhua.
Twenty-five minutes into the PSG game, Jeremy Clement tapped a casual pass-back as the visitors’ keeper Stephane Ruffier watched it slowly go beyond him an into the net.
The second goal came just before the break when Ibrahimovic received a cross from Brazilian full-back Maxwell and powered a header past Ruffier.
A quarter into the second half, the Swedish captain intercepted a back pass by Kevin Monnet-Pacquet to add the third, before Edinson Cavani converted a long range curling effort just a minute later.
And Ibra then completed his tally with 18 minutes to go.
At the Stade Chaban-Delmas Sunday afternoon, Bordeaux’s Willy Sagnol had been expecting to become the first coach in the French top flight to win straight four games right after taking charge, since Marc Rastoll did that with Metz in 1978-1979.
But Bastia opened the scoring through Gadji Tallo in the 18th minute, before the current Ligue 1 leaders narrowly avoided a defeat with Diego Rolan’s strike on 79 minutes.
With the absence of left-back Diego Contento and suspended Cheick Diabate, Bordeaux managed the 1-1 draw to keep themselves on top of the table.
Bastia remain in the bottom half on five points from one win, two draws and one loss.
