Paris Saint-Germain, the leaders, took an important step towards winning its eleventh title and breaking the record, by outright defeating its runner-up Lens, 3-1, on Saturday, in the thirty-first stage of the French Football Championship .

Saint-Germain raised its score to 72 points, compared to 63 for Lens, who may lose the runner-up to Marseille, who is two points behind and meets Troyes on Sunday.

And in the event that the capital team is destined to be crowned, it will have the only record in the number of titles (11), which it currently shares with Saint-Etienne, with ten titles for each of them.

Lens, who did not lose any of his last seven matches (5 wins and two draws), started the match pressing on his host and almost opened the scoring through Ghanaian Salis Abdel Samad, who fired the ball towards the goal, but Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma parried his attempt brilliantly after two minutes.

Then Saint-Germain entered the rhythm of the match, and then the turning point was when Abdel Samad was sent off for committing a mistake against Moroccan right-back Ashraf Hakimi (19).

Saint-Germain took advantage of the numerical shortage in the ranks of his opponent to open the scoring through Kylian Mbappe after exchanging the ball with the Portuguese midfielder Vitinha, before he hit it with the help of the post (31).

The goal is the twentieth for Mbappe this season, to lead the scorers' ranking, by a goal difference from Lille Canadian striker Jonathan David.
Saint-Germain decided the outcome of the match when Vitenia added the second goal with a shot from 25 meters, scoring his first goal this season (37), before Argentine Lionel Messi added the third after a heel pass from Mbappe (40).

In the second half, Lens narrowed the gap through Polish Przemyslaw Frankowski from a penalty kick, following a handball from Spaniard Fabian Royce inside the area (60).

Rennes maintained its hope of participating at the European level next season, by outright defeating Reims 3-0.
Rennes temporarily rose to fifth place, raising its tally to 53 points, one point ahead of Lille sixth, and two points ahead of Lyon seventh.
Rennes competed strongly for the first places in the first division of the league, but its level declined after the resumption of activity after the end of the World Cup in Qatar, to fall back to the middle of the standings.

Rennes supporters raised banners calling on the players to make double efforts to get out of the cycle of mediocre results in recent months, including one, "Winning is necessary in order to maintain hope," and another that reads, "We have been patient for three months without any improvement, something must be done."

Rennes untied his knot against Rennes, which constitutes an intractable knot for him, because he failed to beat his opponent only once in nine matches before today since 2018, in exchange for six defeats and two draws as well.

Rennes took advantage of the absence of influential midfielders in the ranks of Reims, who are suspended Jens Cagost and Azur Matosiwa, to open the scoring for him with a creeping shot by Belgian Jeremy Doku, following a mistake by Alexis Phillips (9).

Doku, who suffered from frequent injuries this season and was only participating for the fifth time, soon added the second goal after a pass from Arno Kalimwindo (19).

The only chance in the first half for Reims was a shot by Marshall Munetsi, but former international goalkeeper Steve Mandanda saved it brilliantly (41).

Rennes' advantage continued, and a free kick was blocked by Benjamin Borrego (67).

Amine Gweri decided the final result in favor of Rennes with a "Loeb" shot in the 68th minute.