Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Paris St Germain v RC Lens - Parc des Princes, Paris, France - November 2, 2024 Paris St Germain's Marquinhos celebrates after the match REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
PARIS (Reuters) - Leaders Paris St Germain continued their unbeaten start to the Ligue 1 season as an early goal from Ousmane Dembele secured a 1-0 home win over RC Lens, who had defender Abdukodir Khusanov sent off on the hour for a dangerous lunge at Achraf Hakimi.
After second-placed Monaco's shock 1-0 loss at home to Angers on Friday, the win took PSG six points clear on 26 after 10 games, with Lille third on 18. Lens are seventh with 14.
PSG beat 10-man Olympique Marseille 3-0 away last week with an electric first-half display and looked on course for a similar performance in front of their home fans but they never really caught fire despite plenty of possession and chances.
Winger Bradley Barcola continued his superb start to the campaign by chasing a long ball down the wing and keeping it in play before flashing it across goal for Dembele to steer home in the fourth minute and give the capital club the lead.
Emboldened by the goal, PSG poured forward looking for more but striker Marco Asensio struggled with his range and timing, letting some great chances go begging.
Lens had a few decent chances of their own but their task became almost impossible when Khusanov was shown a red card in the 59th minute after a VAR review of his challenge on Hakimi.
Brice Samba in the Lens goal was by far the busier of the two keepers, making several saves although most were of the routine variety as PSG's attackers continued to misfire.
The visitors almost grabbed an unlikely point when Andy Diouf connected with a volley in the 80th minute but it went just wide as the hosts held on to extend their lead at the top.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Ken Ferris)
