<
>

PSG must quickly rebound from Barcelona disaster - Adrien Rabiot

Adrien Rabiot has insisted Paris Saint-Germain are determined to bounce back from their Champions League capitulation to Barcelona.

PSG are still licking their wounds after their 6-1 Nou Camp collapse which cost them a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Barcelona incredibly scored three times after the 88-minute mark to progress 6-5 on aggregate.

But PSG's 2-1 victory over Lyon on Sunday night kept them within touching distance of Ligue 1 leaders Monaco.

PSG trail Monaco by three points and Rabiot, speaking after the Parisians' first game at the Parc des Princes since their Nou Camp defeat, said Unai Emery's side still had plenty to play for this season.

"There are quite a few people who were disappointed, angry [at elimination to Barcelona]. Us first,'' Rabiot told French television channel Canal+.

"But we have a championship to fight for, the League Cup and the French Cup, and we must quickly revive.

"We were eliminated from the Champions League, it is true that it was an important objective.

"But the first goal remains the championship. It's going to be tight until the end.

"We must not let go because we know that Monaco is in front. It's important to win.''

Rabiot was on target for only the third time this season as PSG overcame Alexandre Lacazette's sixth-minute header to register a seventh win in eight league games.

Julien Draxler then struck the winner five minutes before half-time, with Javier Pastore again the architect of a free-flowing PSG move.

"We made some mistakes and put ourselves in trouble,'' Rabiot said.

"But I scored an important goal and in the second period we had more control over Lyon.

"We will need the crowd every time we play here and show fight in matches like that.''

Lacazette was substituted seven minutes after half-time and Lyon coach Bruno Genesio explained it was because of a foot injury.

"He took a kick on Thursday in Rome [in the Europa League] on the top of the foot, and he took again one exactly in the same place at the end of the first half,'' Genesio was quoted as saying by L'Equipe.

"It's nothing serious, nothing bad, it just took a hit.

"The international break will do him good. ''

On a defeat which leaves Lyon 14 points adrift of third-placed Nice, albeit with a game in hand, Genesio added: "We made a very good start to the game.

"Then we forgot the fundamentals necessary to have good results at the high level.

"This allowed a very good Paris team to get back in the game.

"It was necessary to get a result to hope to finish in the first three, it is still possible but it becomes more and more difficult.''