Montpellier thrash Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in Ligue 1 shock

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Paris St Germain suffered a shock setback in their pursuit of league leaders Nice with a heavy 3-0 defeat in Montpellier.

Goals either side of the interval from Paul Lasne and Ellyes Skhiri respectively, followed by a late Ryad Boudebouz strike, proved more than enough to hand Unai Emery's team their first defeat in nine league outings.

Defeat for the current champions, their first in Montpellier in the league since 2004, leaves them trailing Nice by a point in the Ligue 1 table with the current pacesetters hosting Toulouse on Sunday evening.

Both sides made a laborious start but, after six minutes, Montpellier's Laurent Pionnier was the first keeper called into action, saving superbly to keep out Christopher Nkunku's header following some good work from Angel Di Maria.

Barring that opportunity, though, PSG lacked any real threat in the final third early on and they almost paid the price after 23 minutes.

Lasne's neat pass found Steve Mounie but, after the Benin-born striker slammed the ball beyond Alphonse Areola, the assistant referee's flag went up to cut short the celebrations.

A half-hearted response came form the visitors but Di Maria sent a week effort sailing over the bar before Lucas dragged an effort from outside of the area wide of the post.

La Pallaide continued to look the more dangerous as the half wore on as Morgan Sanson tried his luck from William Remy's cross before Skhiri saw a half-volley clear Areola's crossbar.

Then, with less than five minutes to play until the interval, Montpellier made a breakthrough.

PSG failed to deal with a direct ball into the area and, after Mounie flicked the ball into his path, Lasne did well to get past Serge Aurier before lifting his shot over the onrushing Areola to hand the hosts a half-time lead.

And PSG's evening got worse soon after the break when Montpellier doubled their advantage just three minutes into the second half.

Some more good work from the busy Sanson gifted Skhiri with a shooting chance on the edge of the area and the 21-year-old finished with aplomb, firing an unstoppable shot beyond Areola.

Daniel Congre almost handed the champions a way straight back into the match, though, when he gave the ball away to Di Maria. But Congre's blushes were saved by Pionnier, who produced a fine save to deny the Argentina winger when he was through on goal.

Emery threw on Hatem Ben Arfa just before the hour and his introduction sparked the visitors into life.

Firstly, the former Hull and Newcastle forward's delightful pass teed up Lucas only for Pionnier to make yet another smart save before Ben Arfa himself latched on to the rebound, but fired over with a first-time effort.

Blaise Matuidi was next to be guilty of wasteful finishing as he made poor contact with Aurier's useful delivery shortly before he aimlessly blazed over from Di Maria's cutback.

And PSG's wasteful finishing proved to be their undoing as Montpellier wrapped up the points with 10 minutes left thanks to an individual Boudebouz effort that trickled beyond the outstretched Areola before nestling in the bottom corner.