Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 Lille: Navas excels as cup holders dump out league leaders

Paris, March 18: Paris Saint-Germain began a season-defining three-game stretch by beating Ligue 1 leaders Lille 3-0 to continue their Coupe de France defence.

PSG have successfully negotiated a Champions League tie with Barcelona but have work to do either side of this month's international break to maintain their domestic challenge.

Mauricio Pochettino's men, second in the league, visit third-placed Lyon on Sunday and then host Lille at the start of April, but they first took care of the pace-setters in the cup on Wednesday to advance to the quarter-finals.

Mauro Icardi had the holders in front before hobbling off and Kylian Mbappe, on in his place, made sure of PSG's progress with a brace either side of Keylor Navas' latest penalty save.

Yusuf Yazici was the man denied, frustrated just as strike partner Burak Yilmaz had been when he passed up the game's first big chance, firing too close to Navas.

The goalkeeper was rather more impressive in his work than opposite number Mike Maignan, who soon gifted PSG the lead after Tiago Djalo failed to cut out Angel Di Maria's right-wing cross on nine minutes. Maignan fumbled and teed up Icardi for a simple finish in front of the goal line.

Yilmaz was unfortunate not to have Lille back on level terms as a left-footed prod bounced agonisingly away off the crossbar, while PSG lost Icardi to a knock.

But the hosts could call instead on Mbappe, his rare rest cut short as he earned a trip from Djalo before emphatically dispatching the resulting penalty.

Navas confidently fielded a second-half drive from Jonathan David and saved again from Jonathan Bamba. He saved his best for last and expertly parried Yazici's penalty to safety after Layvin Kurzawa was deemed to have handled.

That stop provided the platform for Mbappe's final flourish, tearing away from the Lille defence and lobbing Maignan.