PARIS: Neymar netted four goals and Edinson Cavani became Paris St Germain’s joint top-scorer ever as the runaway Ligue 1 leaders demolished visitors Dijon 8-0 on Wednesday.

Brazilian forward Neymar, just back from injury, took his season’s tally to 15 goals and the rout was completed by Angel Di Maria’s double and goals by Cavani and substitute Kylian Mbappe.

Cavani bagged his 156th goal in all competitions for PSG, matching the club record of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who played for the club from 2012-16.

PSG have 56 points from 21 games and lead second-placed Olympique Lyonnais, who won 2-0 at En Avant Guingamp earlier on Wednesday, by 11 points.

Di Maria signaled his fine return to form with the opening two goals, the first on four minutes a magnificent curling strike from the left of the area into the top right corner, and then set up Cavani’s header to make it 3-0 in the 21st minute.

Three minutes before the break, Neymar curled a superb free kick past Baptiste Reynet as PSG continued to pile the pressure.

Neymar doubled his tally 12 minutes into the second half, beating Reynet from close range.

The Brazilian was at hit again in the 73rd, slaloming past six Dijon players before finding the back of the net with a powerful shot from just inside the box.

Four minutes later, Mbappe was set up by Neymar and the French international scored PSG’s seventh goal with a left-foot shot and Neymar rubbed salt in the visitors’ wounds when he converted an 83rd-minute penalty.

The former Barcelona player, who also set up two goals, was booed when he took the penalty as Cavani would have broken the club scoring record had he taken and converted it.

“[Cavani] is our goalscorer and he’s improved a lot here. The team helped him to achieve this individual mark,” said PSG coach Unai Emery, who was quick to defend Neymar’s decision to take the spot-kick.

“I think Neymar took the penalty because it was also a good day for him. We’re happy with it. But there will be lots more chances for Cavani to score more goals.”

Earlier, Nabil Fekir and Houssem Aouar helped Lyon move above Olympique de Marseille and Monaco into second place. They lead Marseille by one point and Monaco by two.

Fifth-placed Nantes conceded a last-gasp penalty in a 1-1 draw at Toulouse, as Max-Alain Gradel salvaged a point for the hosts by cancelling out a first-half header from Slovenia international Rene Krhin.

Montpellier missed the chance to climb up to seventh after drawing 1-1 away to Amiens while ninth-placed Stade Rennes gra­bbed two late goals to win 2-1 away to Lille.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018