Paris, France – Paris Saint-Germain widened its lead atop Ligue 1 to six points on Friday after posting a 3-1 win over Bastia at the Parc des Princes.
Second-half goals from Jeremy Menez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ezequiel Lavezzi were enough to give the hosts the result as Les Parisiens extended their unbeaten run in league play to nine consecutive matches, while Bastia has never won at the Parc des Princes.
Both teams played hard and had numerous chances over the opening 45 minutes, but neither side was able to find a goal.
PSG had a fantastic chance to open the scoring in the 20th minute when Kevin Gameiro brought down a cross in the box and laid it back to Lucas for the shot, but he sliced it wide to the left.
Five minutes later, Gameiro smacked one off the post following a nice feed from Menez.
Bastia had an opportunity to find the net in 30th minute when Florian Thauvin raced down the right wing to the end line and whipped a cross into the box, but Ilan Aruajo's header was off target.
PSG's breakthrough finally came in the 56th minute when Menez dribbled through several defenders on his way to the top of the box before unleashing a dancing, left-footed strike that slipped under Bastia goalkeeper Mickael Landreau and into the net.
Ibrahimovic came on in the 66th minute and added to his league-leading goal scoring tally five minutes later when he buried a spot kick into the lower left corner past Landreau to make it 2-0.
Bastia pulled one back in the 83rd minute as Wahbi Khazri beat Salvatore Sirigu with a well-placed free kick, but the capital club secured the result six minutes later through Lavezzi, who entered in the 75th minute for Lucas.
With the defeat, Bastia remains on 26 points.
Defending champions Montpellier kick off Saturday's action looking to win their third consecutive league match when they travel to the Stade Geoffroy- Guichard to face St. Etienne, who are riding a four-match unbeaten streak.
Ajaccio will try to build on an impressive 3-1 victory over second-place Lyon last week when they host Bordeaux, who are coming off a 2-0 win of their own over Valenciennes, at the Stade Francois Coty.
Coming off a 1-0 away win against third-place Marseille last Sunday, relegation-battling Nancy will try to lift themselves out of the drop zone when they host Reims at the Stade Marcel Picot, while Nice hosts Lorient at the Stade Municipal du Ray looking for a second straight league victory.
Also on Saturday, bottom-of-the-table Troyes hosts 17th-place Sochaux at the Stade de l'Aube in a match with relegation implications. With a victory, Troyes can pull themselves off the floor of the table, while Sochaux has an opportunity to move further clear of the bottom three by taking all three points.
Rounding out Saturday's games, Valenciennes plays host to Brest at the Stade du Hainaut looking to snap a two-match losing run.
On Sunday, third-place Marseille looks to rebound from last week's defeat to Nancy when they visit the Parc des Sports to tangle with Evian, while Lyon will try to close the gap on PSG when they host Lille at the Stade de Gerland.
Toulouse will attempt to bounce back from a humbling 4-0 loss to PSG last week when they travel to the Stade de la Route de Lorient to battle Rennes.
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