PSG slip-ups give glimmer of hope to Ligue 1 rivals

Could there actually be a title race in France this season? That is the question being asked after Paris Saint-Germain slumped to a second defeat of 2023 on Sunday night to give hope to their rivals at the halfway stage of the campaign.At the start of the season the question was whether the PSG of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar could go the whole campaign undefeated in the league. They duly went unbeaten through their first 16 games but that run was ended when they came up against their nearest challengers Lens on New Year’s Day.With Messi still taking a post-World Cup break, PSG were blown away in an intimidating atmosphere in France’s far north and lost that game 3-1. On Sunday they suffered a second straight defeat on the road, losing 1-0 at Champions League chasers Rennes despite fielding Messi, Mbappe and Neymar together for the first time since the World Cup.Lens and Rennes are two of the best-run clubs in France and two of the strongest teams at home, so losing against these opponents is no disgrace. But it is the manner in which PSG have been beaten that is a cause for concern for coach Christophe Galtier.His team are yet to rediscover the form the form they enjoyed before the season paused for the World Cup. Now a crunch Champions League last-16 tie against Bayern Munich is on the horizon - the first leg in Paris is on February 14. "If it is a question of time then it is urgent. We can find a thousand excuses, our players were scattered all over the place for weeks. But the World Cup is finished now,” Galtier said after Sunday’s game.PSG’s season will ultimately be defined by what happens in Europe, and another exit from the Champions League in the last 16 against Bayern – a year after they went out to Real Madrid at the same stage – could be very costly for Galtier. But a deep run in Europe may make them more likely to drop points in Ligue 1, like in 2021 when they reached the Champions League semi-finals and missed out on the domestic title to Lille. That was just the third season since the Qatari takeover of 2011 in which they have not finished as champions.Halfway through this campaign, PSG are three points clear of Lens and five ahead of Marseille, who they still have to play away from home. Lens, whose only league title to date came in 1998, have been outstanding this season under coach Franck Haise and have won 10 in a row at their rocking Stade Bollaert, where packed crowds of 38,000 are greater than the population of the town itself.Steeped in the working-class tradition of a coal-mining region, Lens is a world away from the bright lights and glamour of Paris. The club has a modest budget and they were forced to sell several key players in the last close season, but they are a shining example for other mid-ranking French sides of what can be achieved.Meanwhile Marseille have put a painful exit from the Champions League in early November behind them and have won all six league games played since then. Under Croatian coach Igor Tudor, they played with a level of intensity and urgency in their weekend win over Lorient that was in stark contrast to PSG.They already have more points than when Marcelo Bielsa’s Marseille side topped the table halfway through the 2014/15 season before ultimately falling away. "We have 42 points but we are only third,” Tudor said. "That means two other teams are doing great work. We are halfway through a marathon and we will see who can keep it going.”