22.04.2018 23:13 h

Lo Celso hits late winner for champions PSG

Giovani Lo Celso's late goal gave champions Paris Saint-Germain a hard-earned 1-0 win at Bordeaux in Ligue 1 on Sunday as they stayed on course to finish their season with a clutch of records.

Argentine playmaker Lo Celso scored twice in last week's 7-1 demolition of Monaco that secured a fifth title in six seasons for PSG, and he smashed in the only goal of the game in Bordeaux with 14 minutes remaining.

A corner came off Edinson Cavani and fell to Lo Celso, who drove a low, left-footed strike into the net from 20 yards to sink the home side.

With Neymar still nowhere near a return from a foot operation, Paris also needed goalkeeper Alphonse Areola to be in inspired form at times to stave off Gustavo Poyet's Bordeaux, for whom the defeat all but ends their chances of qualifying for the Europa League.

With 90 points, PSG are on course to break their own Ligue 1 points record of 96 set two years ago under Laurent Blanc, and they could yet become the first team to reach 100 points in the French top flight.

They could also still beat RC Paris' record of 118 goals in a single season dating back to 1960, although they have 104 to their name and just four matches remaining.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Robert Beric scored a second-half brace as Saint-Etienne came from behind to beat Troyes 2-1, continuing their remarkable revival since the turn of the year.

Adama Niane had given relegation-threatened Troyes the lead early on at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, but Beric headed in the home side's equaliser in the 69th minute.

The Slovenian striker, who had been introduced as a half-time substitute, then turned in a low centre by Romain Hamouma six minutes later to make it 2-1.

That was his seventh league goal since being recalled from a loan spell at Anderlecht in January, and the win allowed Les Verts to extend their remarkable unbeaten run to 12 games.

The turnaround at the 10-time former champions coincided with the appointment of veteran Jean-Louis Gasset as head coach.

He has taken a team who were 16th in the table less than three months ago, up to sixth, just a point off a Europa League berth with four matches remaining. Nice are fifth after beating Montpellier 1-0.