Lionel Messi suffered his first defeat as a Paris Saint-Germain player on Sunday as their perfect start to the Ligue 1 season ended with a 2-0 loss at Rennes.
The Argentina star smacked the crossbar with a free-kick in the first half at Roazhon Park before Gaetan Laborde volleyed Rennes ahead just before the break with his league-leading sixth goal. Flavien Tait struck less than 20 seconds after half-time to double the lead, with Kylian Mbappe seeing a goal ruled out for offside as Rennes snapped PSG’s eight-match winning run in the league this term. “We didn’t start the match well but then we played the best 25-30 minutes of the season. It’s a shame we didn’t score. We conceded two goals that were hard to take,” said PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino. PSG lost in the league for the first time since April, when they were beaten 1-0 at home by last season’s eventual champions Lille. Messi lined up alongside Neymar, Mbappe and Angel Di Maria for just the second match, making only his second league start for PSG after missing the past two Ligue 1 games with a knee injury.
