Mauricio Pochettino makes underwhelming begin as PSG draw at St Etienne

Paris St Germain have been held to a 1-1 Ligue 1 draw at St Etienne in coach Mauricio Pochettino’s first sport in cost on Wednesday because the French champions didn’t make their possession depend.
Moise Kean cancelled out Romain Hamouma’s opener within the first half however PSG have been unable to seek out the online once more as they let Olympique Lyonnais, who beat RC Lens 3-2, open up a three-point lead on the prime of the standings.
PSG did, nevertheless, transfer as much as second on 36 factors from 18 video games, leapfrogging Lille on objective distinction after the northeners slumped to a 2-1 dwelling defeat by Angers.
“It was a difficult game. We need to keep working. I’m not looking for excuses, we need to improve the way we play and to improve our performances,” stated Pochettino.
“We are PSG, we must win. I arrived three days ago but I’m happy with the way the players tried to apply what we worked on during practice.”
Elsewhere, former France coach Raymond Domenech returned to the bench with Nantes, 10 years after Les Bleus have been knocked out within the first spherical of the 2010 World Cup in embarrassing style, with the Canaries held to a 0-0 dwelling draw by fourth-placed Stade Rennais.
Four days after being named as successor to Thomas Tuchel, who led the membership to their first Champions League remaining final August, Pochettino was left considering the duty at hand following PSG’s lacklustre efficiency at Geoffroy Guichard.
St Etienne took the lead within the nineteenth minute when Hamouma fired dwelling after Idrissa Gueye had been dispossessed in entrance of the realm.
Kean equalised three minutes later with a shot on the flip after a intelligent deflection by Marco Verratti from Kylian Mbappe’s cross.
PSG loved almost 70% of possession, however within the absence of Neymar, nonetheless recovering from an ankle harm, lacked stamina and inspiration whereas Mbappe had one more match to neglect.
Verratti, positioned excessive up on the pitch as a playmaker, was decisive for PSG’s objective however the Italy midfielder was in any other case as uninspired as the remainder of the staff in a disappointing efficiency by the French champions.
St Etienne, who’re 14th on 19 factors, went near bagging all three factors 20 minutes from time when Denis Bouanga’s header hit the crossbar.
Lyon have been saved on their toes till the ultimate whistle regardless of opening up a 3-0 lead towards RC Lens courtesy of a Memphis Depay double and a Steven Fortes personal objective.
Lens hit again with second-half targets by Florian Sotoca and Cheick Doucoure however got here up simply brief and the promoted aspect are eighth on 27 factors.
Sixth-placed AS Monaco made up for defensive blunders with a scintillating attacking show in a 5-2 victory at Lorient.