Clubs, French Ligue 1, Montpellier, Paris Saint-Germain, Story


Paris Saint-Germain drew a blank for the first time this season as they surprisingly surrendered their 100 percent start with a goalless draw at Montpellier.

Unai Emery’s side had scored 21 times in their first six Ligue 1 fixtures and also put five past Celtic in the Champions League, but their high-powered attack misfired at the Stade de la Mosson.

That will inevitably draw more attention to the absence of world-record signing Neymar, who was left out of the squad with what was reportedly a minor foot injury.

Neymar hit the headlines this week following an apparent disagreement with Edinson Cavani over who would take a penalty in last week’s 2-0 victory over Lyon.

Cavani missed on that occasion and never really looked like getting on the score sheet against Montpellier, who had beaten PSG 3-0 in the same fixture last season.

The visitors suffered an early injury scare when Thiago Motta twice needed treatment in the first 10 minutes, but the Italian midfielder was able to continue as Montpellier created the first genuine chance as Junior Sambia saw his shot blocked.

Motta then fired over from long range before Julian Draxler saw his shot blocked after good work from Kylian Mbappe.

But it was not all one-way traffic and, after Casimir Ninga’s header was blocked, Sambia drew a good save from Alphonse Areola on the half hour.

The best chance of the first half fell to Thiago Silva, but he was unable to direct his close-range header on target from Draxler’s cross.

PSG started the second period brightly and Mbappe’s shot from the left-hand side of the area was saved by Benjamin Lecomte, but the same player then should have done better with a header from six yards from Thomas Meunier’s cross.

At the other end Areola was again called into action to save from Ninga and the home side held on in relative comfort for a deserved point.



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