Paris St Germain continued their dominance over Le Classique rivals Marseille with a 4-0 thrashing at the Parc des Princes.
Marseille have not beaten their bitter rivals since 2011 and hopes of a rare win were quickly extinguished by a stunning first-half display from the hosts, who have scored 13 goals in three games in the injured Neymar’s absence.
Mauro Icardi and Kylian Mbappe – who shared five goals in Tuesday’s Champions League mauling of Club Brugge – both scored twice before half-time while visiting goalkeeper Steve Mandanda made a number of saves to prevent further embarrassment for Andre Villas-Boas’ side.
With the damage done, the teams played out a goalless second period as PSG moved eight points clear at the top of Ligue 1, with their opponents 11 points off the pace in seventh.
There was a sign of things to come straight from kick-off as PSG won possession and fashioned a chance inside the opening 20 seconds. Mbappe’s layoff created an opening for Angel Di Maria, but the Argentina midfielder scuffed his shot wide from the edge of the penalty area.
But the home fans did not have long to wait for the breakthrough as Icardi opened the scoring after just 10 minutes. The summer signing reacted quickly to lash home the rebound after his point-blank header had been parried by Mandanda.
Icardi almost had a second in the 23rd minute but, after being played in by Mbappe, he was denied by a fine save from Mandanda.
But the Argentinian made no mistake minutes later, beating Mandanda to Marco Verratti’s teasing cross to nod in his seventh goal in five games.
Mandanda was under siege and made an impressive diving save to deny Mbappe on the half-hour mark.
But there was nothing he could do two minutes later when Verratti played in Di Maria with another eye-catching pass and the former Manchester United man squared for Mbappe to tap in his first.
PSG saved their best goal of the half for last. A move that started with goalkeeper Keylor Navas calmly passing the ball out of the back while under pressure quickly made its way into the Marseille half, where Di Maria released Mbappe to accelerate away from his marker and power beyond Mandanda.
Mbappe should have completed his second hat-trick in as many games but, with 20 minutes left, he scuffed his shot wide of the target after Icardi selflessly squared the ball to his fellow forward.
It was Mbappe’s last involvement as he was replaced by Edinson Cavani.
Visiting midfielder Valentin Rongier tried his luck from outside the area on a couple of occasions, but his first effort was comfortably held by Navas before his second was blocked by defender Thiago Silva.
Marseille should have pulled one back in the 86th minute but after the ball fell nicely for Marley Ake in the area, the substitute could only fire a shot wide of the far post.
