Bottom played top in this one, and with 85% possession in the opening 10 minutes, Paris Saint-Germain certainly weren’t taking their opponents lightly.
Despite their evident dominance, they still hadn’t managed an effort on or off target during the opening exchanges, which was as much to do with Le Havre’s five-man defence as anything else. When the hosts did get forward, which wasn’t often, their 14 losses of possession in the first 15 minutes told its own story.
Incredibly, directly after Ferran Torres had missed at one end, the hosts powered upfield, and a slick move ended when a tantalising low cross from Rayan Fofana was tapped into an empty net by Josh Maja at the far post.
That only succeeded in firing up the visitors, and on 26’ Mika Godts slid home the equaliser from Achraf Hakimi’s centre.
The Moroccan then smashed home a second two minutes later, but it was only awarded after a long VAR delay.
Both sides had further shots on target before half-time, but there was no change to the scoreline before Francois Letexier whistled for the break.
There was an ease to PSG’s play at the start of the second half, and a stunning direct free-kick from Hakimi on 55’ which was expertly curled out of Arnaud Bodart’s reach, was no more than they deserved.
Maja hit the woodwork for Le Havre just after the hour, and only 15 seconds later, Bodart came rushing out of his area but was beaten to the ball by Senny Mayulu, who fired into an empty net for PSG’s fourth.
Hakimi’s hat-trick goal with 20’ to play saw the ball just bounce off him and into the net, and it silenced an otherwise sympathetic home support.
The latter stages of the game became an exercise in stopping further embarrassment for the hosts, and the result means that you have to go all the way back to February for the last time that Le Havre won a league match in their own stadium (D4, L6).
PSG, on the other hand, have now won 12 of the last 13 H2Hs (D1), including the last six Le Havre hosted.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain)
