PSG 1-0 Troyes: Illia Zabarnyi's header stretches the winning run to ten

Troyes came to the Parc des Princes with a back five, a plan to stay compact, and for the better part of half an hour it worked. Paris Saint-Germain had the ball, as they always do, but the final pass kept running into bodies. Then, three minutes before the break, Warren Zaïre-Emery's probing found Senny Mayulu on the right, and Mayulu's cross found a centre-back arriving late at the far post. Illia Zabarnyi, criminally underused as a goal threat for a man of his size, rose above Michel Diaz and headed PSG in front. It was the only goal Troyes' back line conceded all night, and it was enough.

The rest of the match was a procession in the way these fixtures between first and sixteenth are supposed to be, if not always are. PSG finished with 73% of the possession and 835 completed passes to Troyes' 272, numbers that describe a team playing against a wall rather than an opponent. Seven shots on target to three told a similar story, even if Troyes' goalkeeper Hillel Konaté made sure the scoreline stayed respectable. Luis Enrique rotated four of his starters off the bench over the second half — João Neves, Quentin Ndjantou, Dro Fernández and Lucas Beraldo all came on — with nothing left to prove and a trip to Nice in two weeks' time worth protecting bodies for.

A defender who keeps finding the net

Zabarnyi's header was his second goal involvement of the kind that is starting to look less like a fluke and more like a feature. PSG signed the 24-year-old Ukraine international from Bournemouth in August 2025 for a reported fee north of €60 million, making him the club's first Ukrainian player and, at the time, one of the most expensive centre-backs in the world. He arrived with a reputation built on 78 Premier League appearances for Bournemouth rather than a habit of scoring, but Saturday's header was proof he has added a second string to his bow since swapping the south coast of England for the French capital — timing a run from a deep starting position that none of Troyes' markers tracked.

Match facts

• 39' — Illia Zabarnyi, header, assist Senny Mayulu (PSG)

Ten straight and counting

PSG have not lost since a 2-1 defeat at Monaco on 4 September. Nine straight wins followed that result — Slovan Bratislava, Brest, Marseille, Le Mans, Strasbourg, Barcelona, Lyon, Le Havre and Villarreal, three of them in the Champions League — and Troyes becomes the tenth name on the list. The run has carried PSG from a single point behind Monaco in early September to a three-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 today, with the kind of goal difference, plus-12 after ten games, that only one other side in the division is within four goals of matching.

Troyes stay in the relegation play-off spot

Troyes arrived on the back of a win of their own — 2-0 at home to Le Mans last time out ended a run of three defeats and a draw — but a trip to the league's best team was never likely to continue it. The defeat leaves them on eight points from ten games, 16th in the table and still occupying the relegation play-off place, the spot that sends its occupant into a two-legged tie against Ligue 2's third-placed side at the end of the season. Zero goals and three shots on target away from home is not a platform the rest of Troyes' run-in can be built on.

What's next

PSG stay top with 23 points from ten games and travel to Nice on 21 November when Ligue 1 resumes after the international break. Troyes, 16th with eight points, host Le Havre at the Stade de l'Aube on 20 November in a game both sides will see as more winnable than this one.