PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain returned to the top of the French league on Saturday thanks to a favor from Champions League playoff opponent Monaco.
désiré Doué, bradley barcola and goncalo ramos scored for psg to defeat last-place metz 3-0 and capitalize on monaco's earlier 3-2 win over previous leader lens.
psg moved two points clear of lens with 11 rounds to play.
lens stunned in title race upset
lens had moved top the previous weekend with a 5-0 rout of promoted paris fc while psg lost 3-1 at rennes.
but lens' hopes of a prolonged stay at the summit were dealt a bitter blow saturday after it squandered a comfortable two-goal lead and conceded three goals to metz after the hour-mark.
odsonne édouard scored early with a volley for lens and florian thauvin converted the rebound after monaco goalkeeper philipp köhn could only parry a deflected shot early in the second half.
united states forward folarin balogun scored against the run of play in the 62nd, denis zakaria equalized in the 70th and ansu fati pounced on another defensive blunder to make it 3-2 two minutes after that.
psg's comfortable victory
metz must have feared a rout when doué scored after just two minutes of play after warren zaïre-emery played a long ball in behind the high line of metz defenders.
ramos played the ball across goal for barcola to head the second before the break.
the home team played it safe after it, when it failed to register a shot on target until ramos got the third in the 77th.
psg could arguably have scored more but seemed more intent on conserving energy for wednesday's rendezvous with monaco for the second leg of their champions league playoff in paris.
the winner will go on to face barcelona or chelsea in the round of 16.
other result
also saturday, argentine teenager jullián vignolo scored late as a substitute for mid-table toulouse to draw 1-1 with promoted paris fc.