England legend David Beckham has sympathy with former club Paris Saint-Germain’s travails in Ligue 1 this season.
PSG have won the title the last two seasons and were hot favourites to make it a hat-trick. But this campaign has not been straightforward and Laurent Blanc’s side go into today’s clash against St Etienne in third place, four points behind leaders Lyon.
Beckham, who finished his career in the French capital, told BeIN Sports: “You don’t realise until you play there but the league is very difficult to win.
“At Paris Saint-Germain they have some great players, a good manager and an unbelievable fan-base. So I hope they go on to win the league this year again. But it’s always tough.”
PSG might have slipped up again last weekend when they were pegged back to 2-2 by Evian but they recovered to win 4-2 before seeing off Bordeaux in the Coupe de France in midweek.
Blanc told reporters after the 2-1 win: “The essential thing was to qualify, which we did. So we can be happy with that.”
Today’s match is likely to be another stiff test, with St Etienne a point and a place behind PSG.
Les Verts are unbeaten in 12 league games and will be looking for revenge after a 5-0 thumping in the reverse fixture in August as well as defeat in the Coupe de la Ligue.
Meanwhile, Dimitar Berbatov scored the only goal as Monaco extended their Ligue 1 unbeaten run to six matches with a 1-0 win over Lille yesterday.
The Bulgarian struck in the 57th minute as Leonardo Jardim’s men made it six clean sheets in a row in the league. Lille meanwhile slipped to a second consecutive defeat after their recent good form had moved them away from the relegation zone.
Montpellier secured their third-successive Ligue 1 win with a 4-0 thrashing of Nantes. Paul Lasne, Kevin Berigaud, Anthony Mounier and Lucas Barrios struck for the rampant hosts.
A brace from Claudio Beauvue gave 10-man Guingamp a 3-2 victory over visiting Lorient. There was no such entertainment at Stade Armand Cesari, as Bastia and Bordeaux played out a goalless draw.
