Ibrahimovic Brace Not Enough for PSG as Bordeaux Loss Dents Ligue 1 Title Hopes

Paris Saint-Germain suffered their second defeat of 2015 with a 3-2 loss away at Girondins de Bordeaux on Sunday. Admittedly fatigued by their heroics in the UEFA Champions League earlier in the week, that excuse can only go so far though.

The hosts outplayed Laurent Blanc’s men at Stade Chaban-Delmas, with Willy Sagnol’s troops fully deserving of their victory. The success ends a miserable run of seven straight defeats against PSG and puts another dent in the defending French champions’ title hopes.

Blanc was understandably disappointed with his team’s effort, particularly after their impressive display of character to edge out Chelsea in Europe earlier in the week, as he told PSG.fr.

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We lost because Bordeaux deserved to win, more than Paris did. The reason? There isn't just one reason. We perhaps deserved a draw because we twice came from behind to draw, but Bordeaux dominated the match. We were too fragile. We weren't as technically proficient as usual, which can be explained by several factors.

We were expecting a tough match. We played with ten men on Wednesday (against Chelsea). This afternoon, they really took the game to us. I don't think we had the resources to win, as simple as that. More than the defeat, I'm most unhappy that we lost two players. David Luiz it's a muscular problem, his hamstring. For Cabaye, it's the knee.

"

Bordeaux captain Ludovic Sane put the home side 1-0 up after 18 minutes, heading in after minimal resistance was offered by PSG counterpart Thiago Silva and Sagnol’s purposeful team held a merited half-time lead.

PSG appeared to shake off their continental hangover early in the second half, but they still needed to be gifted their equaliser after 50 minutes.

Inexplicably, Bordeaux goalkeeper Cedric Carrasso presented Les Parisiens with their way back into the game. Attempting to clear the ball from his own penalty area, the Frenchman made it impossible for right-back Mariano to control and Javier Pastore was able to head the ball towards goal.

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In a calamitous mix-up between Carrasso and Tiago Ilori, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was able to poke the ball in for an undeserved equaliser.

That parity only lasted 20 minutes, though, as PSG lapsed back into their attitude from the first half.

After failing to clear an Isaac Kiese Thelin effort sufficiently, the Swede was able to head the ball toward the back post where the impressive Wahbi Khazri was lurking to nod in a rare headed effort and put the hosts in front once again.

However, Les Girondins’ lead only lasted for 15 minutes as Ezequiel Lavezzi won the French capital outfit a contentious penalty. Moments earlier, it had looked as if they had a case for an indirect free-kick with what appeared to be a legitimate back pass in the Bordeaux defence.

There was minimal contact between Mariano and Lavezzi, but Ibrahimovic made perfect contact with the ball to fire in the resulting spot-kick. At that point, it looked as if PSG had salvaged an unlikely point and all Blanc’s players needed to do was hold on for the point.

Lionel Cironneau/Associated Press

However, just three minutes later, Le President’s men found themselves behind for a third time after switching off once again to allow Diego Rolan to turn home the eventual winner.

Marco Verratti and Gregory van der Wiel failed to cut out the Brazilian’s cross, but goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu found himself nutmegged. With such little time left, there was no way that PSG were going to be getting back into the game.

Once again, it was an opportunity missed by the defending champions to take top spot and apply pressure on title rivals Olympique Lyonnais. With time now running out to actually hit the summit outright for the first time this season, there is no guarantee that another chance will be presenting itself again.