India

Di Maria fires PSG into French Cup semi-finals

Sanjana Mukhiya

Paris Saint-Germain continued their bid for a fifth straight French Cup title as Angel Di Maria scored twice in a comfortable 3-0 quarter-final win over Dijon at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday (Feb 26).

Di Maria's eighth-minute lob put the holders ahead, before adding his second before the half-hour mark, with Thomas Meunier sweeping in a late third.

Thomas Tuchel's men remain on course for a historic treble, as they also lead Ligue 1 by 17 points with a game in hand and will take a 2-0 advantage over Manchester United into the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie next week.

Head coach Tuchel, with Neymar and Edinson Cavani still out injured ahead of the Man United game, decided to leave Kylian Mbappe on the bench against a Dijon side languishing in the Ligue 1 relegation zone.

The German singled out the first-half performance of January signing Leandro Paredes for special praise.

Di Maria opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a brilliant lob from the edge of the penalty area after a defense-splitting pass by Draxler, who also set up the second with what was almost a carbon copy of his earlier assist.

Di Maria showed a different kind of composure this time, with his mistimed pass to Eric Choupo-Moting rebounding kindly to the Argentina winger who swept the ball home past the stranded Runarsson.

Dijon defender Fouad Chafik denied Di Maria a first-half hat-trick as he cleared the livewire forward's shot off the line while Julio Tavares hit the post at the other end after a rare Dijon break.

The busy Runarsson twice kept out superb Draxler chances before Choupo-Moting, who missed three good opportunities, set up Meunier with some fine footwork and the Belgium midfielder responded with a clever 76th-minute finish to put the icing on the cake.

In the other quarter-finals, Rennes are at home to second division Orleans and Olympique Lyonnais take on Caen on Wednesday, while fourth division Vitre are at home to Nantes on March 6.

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