PSG win again ahead of Chelsea showdown

PARIS, Mar 29 (AFP): Paris Saint-Germain warmed up for their Champions League showdown with Chelsea by recording a narrow 1-0 win at Nice Friday that took them another step closer to the Ligue 1 title.
For the second week in a row, the reigning French champions were some way short of their flowing best, but a solitary second-half goal, credited as an own goal by Nice full-back Timothee Kolodziejczak, saw them to victory by the same score as at Lorient seven days earlier.
PSG's club record-breaking sequence of consecutive wins now stretches to nine and they have also gone five straight matches without conceding a goal in Ligue 1 as they open up a provisional 13-point lead at the top of the table over Monaco, who visit Evian Saturday.
"To be honest, this match will not go down in the annals of PSG's history but the essential was done," PSG coach Laurent Blanc told beIN Sports.
"We could have been out of sight in the first 10 minutes but in the end we got the job done. At the moment we are not at our best going forward. Our domination was a little sterile last week at Lorient and again tonight. We need to be more much more clinical against Chelsea."
The capital side have struggled frequently in Nice in recent years and were beaten 2-1 at the old Stade du Ray last season, but their mid-table hosts lacked the cutting edge to repeat the feat at their impressive new Allianz Riviera home.
With one eye on Chelsea, Blanc left Alex, Maxwell, Blaise Matuidi and Marco Verratti on the bench at kick-off, but captain Thiago Silva started with a mask protecting the cheekbone he fractured against Lorient.
Nice's entire starting line-up had scored nine goals fewer between them than Zlatan Ibrahimovic, indicating the size of task awaiting Claude Puel's men, and their evening got off to a bad start when the eagle that is their symbol shied out of its pre-match flight around the stadium, opting to hide beneath the roof instead.