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Pedro Pauleta again showed why he is a striker to be feared by scoring twice as Paris Saint-Germain came back to beat Lille 2-1 at the Parc des Princes.
The capital club were in desperate need of a win to keep themselves in the title hunt, but the Parisian crowd could have been forgiven for wondering if they were about to witness another squalid collapse as Claude Puel's visitors raced into an early lead.
PSG coach Laurent Fournier criticised his team's spirit against Saint-Etienne at the weekend, and he will have been furious to watch the sloppy play that allowed the northerners to find the target after just four minutes.
Midfielder Edouard Cissé was the main culprit, with an unspeakably poor attempt to chest the ball in front of his own area that succeeded only in feeding young striker Nicolas Fauvergue. Filling in for Matt Moussilou, the 20-year-old then made the most of some static defending to power past Jérôme Alonzo on the half-volley and send last year's runners-up in front.
It was the worst possible start for the hosts, who were all of a sudden staring at their third defeat of the season, and their situation nearly disintegrated further when Mathieu Debuchy looked to pounce on a loose ball in the area. Making up for his earlier indiscretion, Cissé quickly intervened to turn it out for a corner.
However bad things get for PSG, though, they can always hope for something special from goal machine Pedro Pauleta, and that's exactly what they got when the former Bordeaux man jumped highest to head in an excellent Vikash Dhorasoo cross after 14 minutes.
The hunger missing against Les Verts came flooding back and PSG threatened their well-organised visitors again soon afterwards when Dhorasoo and Pauleta combined well again on the left. Always dangerous but in particularly animated form, the Portuguese striker unleashed a testing shot which curled viciously and skimmed just over the bar.
The teams went in level at the break having spent most of the rest of the half in midfield. As fascinating as the tactical battle between them was, though, the Cissé subplot was just as intriguing, and the former West Ham man made another incredible contribution almost immediately after the interval. Clearly aiming for some sort of redemption, he kept out a certain goal when he blocked a Fauvergue shot on the line following Mathieu Debuchy's corner.
It proved to be no less than the turning point, in fact, because moments later Pauleta cracked in his sixth goal of the campaign to give the hosts the advantage. David Rozehnal fed Christophe Landrin on the right and the ex-Lille ace sent in a cross which Ligue 1's leading marksman controlled before side-footing beyond Sylva.
Fournier brought off Pauleta to a great roar from the home crowd, but the contest was not over yet, and it took a fantastic save from Alonzo in added-time to prevent Debuchy from grabbing Lille a share of the spoils. PSG deserved their triumph, though, and move to within one point of leaders Lyon, who face Lens tomorrow. As for Lille, their mini-revival has taken a knock and they slip back down to eighth.
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