With a decisive victory in this match, PSG has already secured their first trophy of the year.
Any attempt by Nantes to rally was quickly thwarted by Ramos’ cunning back-heel, which gave PSG a 3-0 lead.
PSG then repeatedly shot at Les Canaris’ goal, creating chance after chance.
But it required Castelletto’s moment of insanity for PSG to score their fourth goal, which Neymar scored from the penalty spot.
A resounding victory and PSG start 2022/23 as they mean to go on.
Starting lineup:
PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN (3-4-3): Gianluigi Donnarumma; Sergio Ramos, Marquinhos, Presnel Kimpembe; Achraf Hakimi, Vitinha, Marco Verratti, Nuno Mendes; Pablo Sarabia, Lionel Messi, Neymar.
PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN SUBS: Keylor Navas, Leandro Paredes, Mauro Icardi, Juan Bernat, Danilo Pereira, Abdou Diallo, Nordi Mukiele, Idrissa Gueye, Arnaud Kalimuendo Muinga.
NANTES (3-4-1-2): Alban Lafont; Jean-Charles Castelletto, Andrei Girotto, Nicolas Pallois; Dennis Appiah, Moussa Sissoko, Pedro Chirivella, Marcus Coco; Ludovic Blas; Evann Guessand, Moses Simon.
NANTES SUBS: Remy Descamps, Fabio, Samuel Moutoussamy, Samuel Yepie Yepie, Mohamed Achi, Lohann Doucet, Sebastien Corchia, Quentin Merlin, Mostafa Mohamed.
Goals:
GOOOOAAAALLLL!!!! PSG, take the lead!!! Neymar drops deep into midfield to receive the ball and puts a delightful through ball forward to Messi. A nick off Pallois takes it into his path, and the Argentine does the rest; beating the defence before rounding the keeper and putting the ball into an empty net, and that vintage Messi goal makes it 1-0 to PSG!
GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!! What a strike!!! Neymar steps up as coolly as you like, slotting the free-kick perfectly into the top corner, beating both the wall and Lafont to make it 2-0 to PSG!!! What a finish that was from the Brazilian!
GOOOOAAAALLLLL!!!! It’s three!!!! The corner is cleared, but Paris returns again, and Verratti’s ball forward causes all sorts of problems. Lafont saves Messi’s half-volley, but in the ensuing scramble, Ramos pops up to back-heel the ball into the corner to make it 3-0 to PSG!! Cheeky from the veteran defender, and that could well be game over now!
GOOOAALL!!! Neymar makes it four!!! He steps up slowly to take the penalty, and when he strikes it, he wrong-foots Lafont to slot it into the corner, putting a cruising PSG 4-0 up!
So, what’s next?
With the Trophee des Champions wrapped up ahead of Ligue 1’s big kick-off on August 5th.
PSG have put a marker down that they’ll once again be the team to beat, both domestically and in Europe.
A night to forget for Nantes, but with a campaign in the Europa League coming up, it could well be the start of a memorable season for La Maison Jaune.
