{"id":3646,"date":"2014-04-20T04:38:47","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T04:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=3646"},"modified":"2014-04-20T04:38:47","modified_gmt":"2014-04-20T04:38:47","slug":"cavani-scores-twice-as-psg-wins-french-league-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/cavani-scores-twice-as-psg-wins-french-league-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavani Scores Twice As PSG Wins French League Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Paris St-Germain won the French League Cup for a record fourth time as Edinson Cavani’s double helped them to a 2-1 win over Lyon.<\/p>\n

Cavani opened the scoring from close range after 178 seconds, the second fastest goal in a Coupe de la Ligue final.<\/p>\n

Alex had a goal disallowed for offside before Cavani doubled the lead from the penalty spot at Stade de France.<\/p>\n

Alexandre Lacazette pulled a goal back for Lyon with a low 20-yard finish.<\/p>\n

They pushed on for a second but, despite prolonged spells of pressure, rarely threatened the all-important equaliser.<\/p>\n

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This was the 16th of 20 Coupe de la Ligue finals that has has been won by the team that opened the scoring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

PSG, who are 10 points clear of second-placed Monaco in Ligue 1, remain on course for a domestic double but were knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals by Chelsea.\u00a0They lost to Montpellier in the French Cup last-16 back in January.<\/p>\n

The victory brings manager Laurent Blanc his first major trophy at PSG, after relacing Real Madrid-bound Carlo Ancelotti\u00a0in June. He had previously won the competition with Bordeaux in 2009.<\/p>\n

Lyon, meanwhile, become the first team to have lost four French League Cup finals – their only victory came back in 2001. Their hopes of winning it for a second time were not looking good within four minutes.<\/p>\n

Maxwell cut inside from the left, chipped the ball past keeper Anthony Lopes, and Cavani beat his man to tap the ball into an empty net.<\/p>\n

The Uruguayan has scored 15 league goals this season since signing from Napoli for\u00a0\u00a355m<\/a>\u00a0in the summer but has often played second choice to striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is Ligue 1’s top scorer with 25 goals.<\/p>\n

But, with Ibrahimovic injured, Cavani got the opportunity to play in his favoured central role – rather than right in a three-pronged attack – and almost doubled his tally soon after with a fierce volley that was well saved by Lopes.<\/p>\n

Cavani was heavily criticised for missing a good opportunity in PSG’s Champions League exit at Chelsea and he put in another wasteful showing in the 1-0 defeat at Lyon\u00a0a week ago.<\/p>\n

It looked like being his night though when, after former Chelsea defender Alex had a goal disallowed for offside, he made it 2-0 from the penalty spot, finishing emphatically after Lucas was taken out by Lopes.<\/p>\n

Contact may have been made just outside the penalty area but the goalkeeper was nowhere near the ball as he rashly charged out.<\/p>\n

Lyon and PSG met each other for the sixth time in the Coupe de la Ligue, a record in the competition.<\/p>\n

Cavani should have been celebrating a first-half hat-trick but he fired over the bar from eight yards with just Lopes to beat, and PSG were almost made to rue that miss as Lyon threatened a comeback after the break.<\/p>\n

Lacazette broke with the ball from the halfway line, and beat two PSG defenders, before firing low into the net from 20 yards.<\/p>\n

That goal came with 54 minutes gone but they rarely looked like forcing extra-time despite their fair share of possession.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paris St-Germain won the French League Cup for a record fourth time as Edinson Cavani’s double helped them to a 2-1 win over Lyon. Cavani opened the scoring from close range after 178 seconds, the second fastest goal in a Coupe de la Ligue final. Alex had a goal disallowed for offside before Cavani doubled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3648,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646\/revisions\/3648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}