PIRAEUS, Greece (AP) — Thiago Motta headed in two second-half goals as Paris Saint-Germain beat Olympiakos 4-1 in a Champions League Group C match on Tuesday.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed a late penalty for the French champions, but set up their first goal in the 19th minute, picking out Maxwell in the area before Edinson Cavani sprinted forward for the tap in.
Vladimir Weiss tore through the PSG defense for the equalizer six minutes later, weaving past three defenders for an impressive solo effort.
The French club patiently pushed forward, and forced Olympiakos to defend for most of the second half.
Substitute Ezequiel Lavezzi gave PSG additional against a tiring Olympiakos defense. He provided the corner kicks headed in by Motta with identical precision in the 68th minute and the 73rd. Marquinios completed the scoring with another header in the 86th.
"They caused us some problems as we expected from Olympiakos at home. But we gained possession and Olympiakos used up a lot of their energy in the first half," PSG coach Laurent Blanc said. "Their performance fell off considerably in the second half, so we kept playing hard and we got the result.
"We fell too far back in the first half ... but closed the gap between defense and our forwards after the break. We had a lot more space in the second half."
Cheered on by 30,000 noisy fans at Karaiskaki Stadium, Olympiakos had a strong start and hit the bar twice in 15 minutes, with Weiss in the opening seconds and again with David Fuster.
But PSG withstood the early threats and waited out the hosts, with Ibrahimovic falling back and Uruguay striker Cavani posing a constant threat.
Ibrahimovic was knocked to the ground by Andreas Samaris but missed from the penalty spot in the 82nd minute, his shot saved by newly-signed Olympiakos goalkeeper Roberto Jimenez.
"The score made it look like Paris Saint-Germain had an easy win, but that wasn't the case. To lose this way and with that score was tough for us." Olympiakos coach Michel Gonzalez said.
Olympiakos midfielder Yiannis Maniatis said his team played an open game "but it was those three dead balls that cost us."
"We really let ourselves down," he said. "You lose control for a minute and the goals start going in against you."
News Topics: Sports, Men's soccer, Men's sports, Professional soccer, UEFA Champions League, Soccer, EventsPeople, Places and Companies: Thiago, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, Laurent Blanc, Greece, Western Europe, Europe
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