Strasbourg 1-3 PSG: three goals in 13 minutes turn it around at the Meinau

For an hour at the Stade de la Meinau, Strasbourg had Paris Saint-Germain exactly where an underdog wants a visiting giant: behind on the scoreboard and short of answers. Giovanni Reyna's 17th-minute finish, set up by Gessime Yassine, held up deep into the second half, and PSG — six-time reigning Ligue 1 champions — looked strangely toothless for long stretches against a side sitting 11th in the table before kickoff. Then, in the space of 13 minutes, the champions scored three times and turned a losing afternoon into a 3-1 win.

A slow PSG finally wake up

Illia Zabarnyi, more often occupied defending set pieces than finishing them, got PSG level in the 77th minute, turning in a ball from Ousmane Dembélé. Eight minutes later Dembélé completed the turnaround himself, and Désiré Doué — on as a second-half substitute — added a third in the third minute of stoppage time, teed up by Ferran Torres. Three goals, three different scorers, inside 13 minutes, after 76 minutes in which PSG had managed nothing at all.

Dembélé's night

The goal and the assist belonged to the player increasingly central to PSG's identity under Luis Enrique. Ousmane Dembélé won the 2025 Ballon d'Or in September, the first PSG player to take the award since Lionel Messi in 2023, on the back of a season in which he scored 35 goals across all competitions and helped the club complete a domestic and continental treble — Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and the Champions League among them. His contribution at the Meinau, an assist for Zabarnyi's equaliser followed by a goal of his own, was a reminder of why, even in a half where little else about PSG's play stood out.

A back line that held, for a while

Strasbourg's goal came from one of their more eye-catching summer signings. Giovanni Reyna, the United States international who joined from Borussia Mönchengladbach for a reported €3 million in August on a five-year deal, got on the end of Yassine's pass to put the hosts ahead in the 17th minute — and for close to an hour afterwards, Strasbourg did the hard part of defending that lead against a side with recognised quality in every position. Conrad Harder and Dário Essugo were both booked either side of the 77th-minute equaliser as the game slipped away, but the home side's resistance for the best part of an hour against the eventual damage, limited to 1-3, says something for how they played it.

Shots on target tell a different story

The scoreline undersells how competitive Strasbourg were for long periods. Despite seeing only 27% of the ball, they had eight shots on target to PSG's seven — the same number of shots on target as the team that dominated territory for almost three-quarters of the match. PSG's passing told the more familiar story: 615 of 675 passes found a team-mate, a 91% completion rate, against 194 of 246 for Strasbourg at 79%, and PSG won six corners to Strasbourg's three.

A front three swapped roles from last week

Luis Enrique made a notable change from the previous round. A week earlier, at home to Le Mans, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Maghnes Akliouche came off the bench and scored within minutes of each other to turn that game around. This time both started, alongside Ferran Torres, while Dembélé, Doué, Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes and Vitinha were the five introduced from the bench — the same kind of second-half reshuffle that worked against Le Mans, just with the personnel reversed.

• 17' — Giovanni Reyna (Strasbourg), assisted by Gessime Yassine
• 77' — Illia Zabarnyi (PSG), assisted by Ousmane Dembélé
• 85' — Ousmane Dembélé (PSG)
• 90+3' — Désiré Doué (PSG), assisted by Ferran Torres

What's next

The result is a fourth straight Ligue 1 win for Paris Saint-Germain, following victories over Brest, Marseille and Le Mans, and it takes them to 1st place on 14 points, above Lille and Monaco on goals scored after all three finished the day level. Strasbourg drop to 12th on 7 points, their run of two wins and a draw in the previous three league matches ended at home.