PSG warm up for crunch Liverpool Champions League test with victory at Rennes

Paris St Germain maintained their unbeaten Ligue 1 record this season with a 4-1 win at Rennes.

Bradley Barcola scored the first goal and set up the second for Goncalo Ramos, though was perhaps fortunate to escape being sent off before half-time.

Lilian Brassier pulled one back and Luis Enrique was forced to turn to his big guns off the bench, with Ousmane Dembele scoring a stoppage-time brace to clinch victory.

Nineteen-year-old Warren Zaire-Emery captained a PSG team showing eight changes from their Champions League first-leg defeat to Liverpool ahead of Tuesday’s return leg.

Barcola, Joao Neves and Willian Pacho were the three men retained, meaning goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was on the bench and must wait to make his 100th Ligue 1 appearance.

The club marked International Women’s Day by replacing the players’ names on their shirts with the slogan “WO=MAN”.

Barcola was denied on the quarter-hour mark by Rennes keeper Brice Samba, who then made an even better save from Ramos.

He was beaten in the 27th minute, though, Barcola finishing through his legs after being fed by Desire Doue following a quickly-taken free-kick.

Barcola was at the centre of a bizarre incident in the 34th minute when he palmed the ball out of play as Rennes played out from the back. Rather than the France winger, the yellow card was instead shown to Samba for his protests.

Rennes went close through Ludovic Blas before Kader Meite’s header hit the bar, either side of a booking for PSG’s Lucas Hernandez, but the champions remained a goal to the good at half-time. Barcola was eventually booked for a dive in stoppage time.

Both teams were unchanged upon the restart and it took just five minutes for Ramos to double PSG’s lead, poking home Barcola’s low ball across the six-yard box.

But Habib Beye’s side hit back three minutes later as defender Brassier headed home from a corner.

That helped provoke a quadruple change midway through the second half from Enrique, with Nuno Mendes, Vitinha, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and the in-form Dembele replacing Hernandez, Neves, Lee Kang-in and Ramos.

Achraf Hakimi then came on for Barcola and two of the substitutes combined in stoppage time as Hakimi teed up Dembele for the goal to make the game safe.

Dembele added his second and PSG’s fourth with a casual low finish from the edge of the box in the fourth added minute.

It was a 37th successive away game in Ligue 1 without defeat for PSG, adding to a club-record run dating back to February 2023.