Di Maria, Cavani step up in Neymar's absence
Edinson Cavani bagged a brace as Paris Saint-Germain marched on without the injured Neymar to a 4-1 win over Rennes.
The Uruguay striker's early opener was cancelled out by M'Baye Niang, Rennes' former AC Milan forward lucky not to be sent off for crashing into Thilo Kehrer's left ankle.
Following a lacklustre opening 45 minutes, PSG powered clear as it has done in the title race, with the excellent Angel Di Maria and Kylian Mbappe on target before the latter laid on Cavani's 20th of the season in all competitions.
PSG is 13 points clear of Lille at the top of Ligue 1, with two games in hand, while Rennes is 10th and winless in three top-flight games.
Presnel Kimpembe's fabulous pass sent Di Maria scampering into space down the left in the seventh minute and his cross was nodded home by Cavani.
Julian Draxler took evasive action to allow Cavani to finish and should have added his own name to the scoresheet in the 18th minute after Di Maria and Mbappe worked space in the area.
That miss meant Niang was able to slide in a Rennes equaliser from Hamari Traore's cross, although the goalscorer was incredibly fortunate to retain a booking following a VAR review of his dreadful lunge on Kehrer.
Juan Bernat blazed over from Di Maria's lay-off early in the second period before the Argentina winger was again the provider for Draxler to drill too close to Rennes goalkeeper Tomas Koubek.
That seemingly convinced Di Maria to take matters into his own hands with an hour played, dinking a delicate finish over Koubek having charged onto Thiago Silva's raking ball.
Mbappe slotted in his 18th Ligue 1 goal of the season from Draxler's pass six minutes later – Rennes midfielder Clement Grenier having coughed up possession.
Draxler and Mbappe picked apart the disintegrating away defence in training-ground style for Cavani to notch his 71st-minute second as its seemingly unstoppable march to a sixth league title in seven seasons continues.
