Paris (AFP)
Unsurprisingly, Paris, Lyon and Lille won against Saint-Etienne (6-1), Brest (3-1) and Amiens (2-0) Wednesday in the quarter-finals of the League Cup to join Reims in the halves .
During the draw for the semi-finals Thursday, PSG will necessarily be the club to avoid for the three other contenders for the succession to Strasbourg, holding the title eliminated Tuesday by Reims on penalties (0-0, 4 tab to 2 ).
Mercilessly against Stéphanois reduced to ten from half an hour of play, Paris, the most successful club in the competition, is two victories from winning its ninth League Cup, for the last edition of this uninspiring competition.
Against Saint-Etienne, the pitch confirmed the pre-match a priori: Paris was more than one step ahead. From the second minute, Mauro Icardi opened the scoring, deceiving Jessy Moulin in a tight corner.
Wesley Fofana excluded for a second yellow after a trip on Angel Di Maria in the race for the goal, PSG had all the space to express themselves.
Neymar doubled the mark with a soft rolled strike (39th), before the defense of the Greens scuttled on a comical billiard shot between two defenders, the post and Moulin (44th). The second period was one-sided with Icardi's second and third goal (49th, 57th), that of Kylian Mbappé (67th), despite the reduction of the score on a two-stroke penalty by Yohann Cabaye (71st.
- Lyon wants to review 2001 -
Lyon, which won the Coupe de la Ligue only once in 2001, also quickly made things easier against Brest thanks to the crossed strike of Moussa Dembélé (19th).
Houssem Aouar doubled the score (55th), Samuel Grandsir maintained the Breton hope of a sharp (85th), before the goal of knockout signed Jean Lucas (90th + 1).
In Lille too, the hierarchy was respected, even if it took a little more time. Faced with Amiens reduced to ten (Bongani Zungu, 38th), the Losc relied on their Brazilian Luiz Araujo, author of a magnificent coiled strike (50th) then the beautiful hook-shot sequence of Victor Osimhen (58th) .
The Mastiffs thus have the opportunity to climb for the second time in their history in the final of the competition, after their defeat against PSG in 2016.
© 2020 AFP