PSG 2-0 Lyon: two second-half substitutes end Lyon's resistance and send PSG top of Ligue 1

Senny Mayulu and Mika Godts, two substitutes with completely different PSG stories, settled a derby that had stayed goalless for more than an hour at the Parc des Princes. Mayulu's 72nd-minute finish and Godts' follow-up twelve minutes later sent Paris Saint-Germain top of Ligue 1 with a 2-0 win over Lyon, completing the eighth round of the season.

Lyon hold out for an hour, then the bench changes it

For more than seventy minutes Lyon did what visiting sides at the Parc des Princes almost never manage: nothing happened. PSG dominated the ball from kick-off — 68.3% of it by the final whistle — but Dominik Greif's goal stayed untroubled until the 72nd minute, when substitute Mika Godts squared the ball for fellow substitute Senny Mayulu to open the scoring. Twelve minutes later Godts turned scorer himself, finishing off a pass from another substitute, Quentin Ndjantou, to put the result beyond doubt. Three players introduced from the bench combined for both goals inside a twelve-minute spell — the kind of squad depth that turns a stubborn 0-0 into a routine win without the starting front three needing to touch the scoresheet at all.

A teenager and a record signing, both delivering

The two scorers arrived at PSG by opposite routes. Mayulu, 20, is a pure academy product: he joined the club's youth system at 12, broke into the first team during the 2023-24 season and has become one of Luis Enrique's trusted options off the bench since. Godts, by contrast, is one of the summer's headline signings — a Belgium international bought from Ajax in August on a five-year deal, brought in specifically for his pace and his threat in one-on-one situations out wide. On Sunday night it was the big-money arrival who created the opener and the academy graduate who finished it, before the two swapped roles for the second.

A disciplined, one-sided night

The only blemishes on an otherwise comfortable evening were in the referee's notebook. Vitinha was booked in the 31st minute, Maghnes Akliouche followed just after half-time, and Lyon's Ernest Nuamah picked up the only card shown to a visiting player, two minutes before the opening goal. None of the three bookings carried any real consequence — PSG were never troubled at the back, and Lyon's five shots on target were the product of a side that kept trying without ever looking like it would actually level the game.

• 31' — Vitinha (PSG) booked
• 51' — Maghnes Akliouche (PSG) booked
• 72' — Senny Mayulu (PSG), assisted by Mika Godts
• 74' — Ernest Nuamah (Lyon) booked
• 84' — Mika Godts (PSG), assisted by Quentin Ndjantou

Line-ups

Five straight wins put PSG top

The win is PSG's fifth in a row in all competitions, a run that has also produced a 4-2 win over Barcelona in the Champions League and a 3-1 win away at Strasbourg either side of the international break. It moves Luis Enrique's side above Rennes at the top of Ligue 1: PSG go to 17 points from eight games — five wins, two draws, one defeat — one clear of a Rennes side that had held first place until this result completed the round.

Lyon slip to fifth

For Lyon, the defeat ends a mixed sequence — a win over Nice had followed a loss at Lens, which in turn had followed a win over Rennes — and it costs them a place in the table. They drop from fourth to fifth, on 14 points from eight games (four wins, two draws, two defeats), overtaken by a PSG side they had held at arm's length for the better part of this match. It is their first defeat since going down 1-2 away at Lens on 9 October, either side of a considerably more encouraging run that had included that win over Nice at home.