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Paris Saint-Germain 3 Reims 2: Cavani double sees champions celebrate title with routine win

SoccerNews in Ligue 1 23 May 2015

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Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain celebrated their third successive title triumph in fitting fashion, as Edinson Cavani led a 3-2 home defeat of Reims on Saturday.

Laurent Blanc’s men retained their status as champions with a 2-1 victory at Montpellier last time out and, with the trophy presented at full-time on Saturday, PSG marked the occasion with some fine football, particularly during the first half.

In the absence of the injured Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cavani proved a constant nuisance to the Reims backline, eventually opening the scoring with half an hour played.

While Reims had little answer to the Uruguayan’s movement, Javier Pastore and Lucas Moura terrorised the visitors in their respective supporting roles, and the latter teed up Adrien Rabiot for the Parisians’ second on the stroke of half-time.

Reims did improve after the interval, with Aissa Mandi’s header eight minutes into the second half reducing their deficit.

However, PSG added a third through Cavani – prior to a late consolation from Grejohn Kyei – and will now turn their attention to next Saturday’s Coupe de France final against Auxerre having ended the league season with nine straight wins.

PSG showed no signs of being distracted by their imminent title celebrations during the early exchanges, looking lively and full of attacking intent right from the start.

Some areas of the Parc des Princes crowd thought the hosts had broken the deadlock as early as the fifth minute, though Pastore’s effort was cleared off the line by Franck Signorino following an excellent run by Lucas.

Pastore was at the centre of things again shortly after, this time turning creator as the Argentine picked out Cavani, who ultimately saw his effort deflect off a defender and then Kossi Agassa in the Reims goal.

Lucas soon began to rival Pastore as PSG’s biggest threat, tormenting Reims with his powerful runs and blinding pace, but he was denied a fine solo effort by Mohamed Fofana’s last-gasp intervention in the 26th minute.

The breakthrough finally arrived four minutes later, though, as Cavani latched on to a Marco Verratti through pass and slid a shot under Agassa.

Rabiot doubled PSG’s lead just before the break, slamming home emphatically from 20 yards after being released by the brilliant Lucas.

The hosts’ start to the second half was no by means ideal, though, as Reims showed a marked improvement and pulled a goal back in the 54th minute, Mandi heading Signorino’s excellent delivery beyond Nicolas Douchez.

Olivier Guegan’s men almost restored parity two minutes later. This time, however, Douchez was able to thwart Gaetan Charbonnier, who had fought his way past Thiago Silva and shot from a tight angle.

PSG remained a threat, but Reims continued to find joy on the break and Diego should have levelled 72 minutes in, blazing over from 16 yards after pouncing on Zoumana Camara’s failed clearance.

Blanc’s side made the most of that let-off seven minutes from time, Cavani collecting Ezequiel Lavezzi’s low left-wing cross and sweeping into the bottom-right corner.

Although Kyei pulled one back in the 89th minute after striding past David Luiz, PSG did enough to secure all three points and their title celebrations duly followed.

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