Ferran Torres Leads PSG to First Ligue 1 Victory
Ferran Torres struck early and Paris Saint-Germain finally looked like champions again.
Luis Enrique’s side, sluggish and strangely blunt through the opening weeks of Ligue 1, ground out a 1-0 win at Brest on Sunday to claim their first league victory of the season. It was hardly a statement scoreline. The statement came from Torres’ right boot.
Four days after demolishing Slovan Bratislava 6-1 to launch their bid for a third straight Champions League crown, PSG arrived in Brittany under pressure. Two points from three league games is not the return expected from a squad built to dominate Europe, never mind France.
They needed someone to grab the game. The summer signing from Barcelona did it in five minutes.
Torres, again
At Stade Francis-Le Blé, the match had barely settled when Ousmane Dembele, the Ballon d’Or winner, flicked a clever backheel into space at the edge of the box. Torres burst onto it, gliding past the ‘D’, and passed the ball with precision into the bottom corner beyond Egil Selvik’s dive.
One touch to set it, one to finish. Clinical. Calm. Exactly what PSG’s league campaign had been missing.
Torres, who scored the winning goal for Spain in this summer’s World Cup final and hit a hat-trick in midweek, now sits on six goals in five games for his new club in all competitions. He played down his personal numbers afterwards, insisting his only concern is “helping the team” whether through goals, assists or work off the ball, but the pattern is clear: when PSG need a moment, he is providing it.
The goal lifted PSG to eighth, level on points and record with a Brest side that had been unbeaten before kick-off. For the champions, it felt less like a routine away win and more like a necessary reset.
Before the action, Brest paused to remember former coach Eric Roy, who died in June aged 58 from pancreatic cancer. The tribute set a poignant tone; the match that followed was anything but gentle.
Brest hit back, PSG hold on
PSG’s first-half control could have produced more. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia went close to a second, carrying the same menace that shredded Bratislava days earlier. Yet for all the visitors’ flair, the evening brought a worrying note: Achraf Hakimi, Morocco’s captain and PSG’s right-back, limped off just before half-time. Midfielder Fabian Ruiz came on, forcing an early reshuffle.
The injury shifted the mood. Brest sensed vulnerability and came out flying after the break.
Five minutes into the second half, Nuno Mendes gifted them a golden chance with a loose ball across his own area. Kamory Doumbia pounced, clean through with only Matvey Safonov to beat. His shot beat the keeper but not the woodwork, crashing back off the post. The stadium gasped; PSG breathed again.
The hosts thought they had forced an equaliser two minutes later when the ball ended up in their own net in a scramble, only for the effort to be ruled out for a push by Warren Zaire-Emery. The let-off was huge. Brest kept coming.
In the closing stages, it was Safonov who turned from spectator into saviour. Pathe Mboup found space and fired low towards the far corner, only for the Russian goalkeeper to spring down and fingertip the ball past the post. One sharp movement, one vital touch. That was enough to seal the points.
It was not a vintage performance from Luis Enrique’s men, but for a team that had stumbled out of the blocks domestically, it was a badly needed win, carried by their in-form forward and a keeper who refused to blink.
Ethan Mbappe’s response in Lille’s rise
Earlier in the day, another storyline unfolded in the north. Ethan Mbappe, still living in the long shadow of his older brother Kylian, stepped out with something to prove.
Sent off in midweek during Lille’s 3-2 home defeat to Real Betis in the Champions League for elbowing an opponent, the 19-year-old entered against Troyes with that red card still hanging over him. Lille led 1-0 thanks to a first-half strike from Portuguese full-back Tiago Santos, but the game remained tight.
Deep into stoppage time, Mbappe made his moment count. Coming off the bench, he struck late to secure a 2-0 victory and send Lille top of Ligue 1 on goal difference, ahead of Monaco and Rennes. It was his first goal since December.
His celebration was muted, an apology to supporters for his midweek dismissal rather than a chest-beating release. His coach, Davide Ancelotti, praised the teenager’s reaction, saying he had “come to his senses” after the red card, shown maturity and taken responsibility. The Lille boss stressed how important this week had been for Mbappe’s growth “as a player and as a person” and underlined that the youngster’s quality had never been in doubt.
Under new coach Ancelotti, son of Brazil manager Carlo Ancelotti, Lille have taken 10 points from a possible 12. The table shows a team moving with purpose.
Lens feel the strain
Not everyone near the top last season has found the same rhythm.
Lens, surprise title challengers in the previous campaign, are living a split-screen start. On one side, big nights: a 3-2 Champions League win away at Slavia Prague on Thursday, and a victory over PSG in the French Champions’ Trophy last month. On the other, a Ligue 1 campaign that refuses to ignite.
Sunday’s 2-2 draw at newly-promoted Le Mans left them with just four points from four matches and parked in 10th place. For a team that rattled the established order last season, the contrast is stark.
As PSG search for fluency, Lille ride a new wave and Lens fight to rediscover theirs, one question lingers over this early stretch of the French season: which of these contenders will still be setting the pace when the real pressure arrives in spring?
