Hakimi's hat-trick masks Le Havre's deeper crisis in PSG rout

Paris Saint-Germain's 5-1 victory at Le Havre on Friday night was not supposed to be about the right-back. Yet Achraf Hakimi walked away with his first career hat-trick and two assists, a return that made a routine Ligue 1 win feel like something stranger. Then Mika Godts equalised on 26 minutes, Hakimi put PSG ahead two minutes later, and the evening turned into a demonstration of what happens when a bottom club meets a champion in rhythm.

Hakimi added his second and third goals on 55 and 69 minutes, with Senny Mayulu scoring in between on 62. The raw numbers say PSG had 71 per cent possession and 15 shots to Le Havre's 14 — hardly the shot count of a massacre. But the quality gap shows elsewhere: ten shots on target to five, five big chances to three, and an expected-goals figure of 3.11 against 1.88. PSG's open-play xG alone was 3.02, against an average of 1.67 across their earlier 2026/27 matches in all competitions. They scored 1.89 goals more than their xG here, having averaged 0.0 goals minus xG in those earlier games. One match is not a trend, but it does describe a night when everything PSG touched went in.

The scoreline flatters PSG less than it condemns Le Havre. This was a seventh defeat in nine league matches and a tenth consecutive home game without a win. Le Havre have not won at their own ground since 15 February. They sit bottom with two points.

For PSG, this was a sixth straight league win and a continued hold on top spot. They also became the first Ligue 1 club to reach 100 goals in 15 consecutive calendar years in official competition, a record that speaks to the relentlessness of the project rather than any single performance. The summer arrivals — Dro Fernández, Ferrán Torres, Lucas Digne, Mika Godts and Maghnes Akliouche — have been folded into a squad that no longer relies on one scorer. The goals are coming from everywhere, which is precisely the point.

Reports described PSG as having "humiliated" Le Havre, and the scoreline supports that. But the shot count and the xG gap tell a slightly different story: Le Havre created enough to suggest the collapse was as much about finishing and defensive structure as about being overrun. Kamara, for what it is worth, joined Olympique Lyon on 1 July 2026 on a contract to 2030. The others' current clubs are not part of this picture.

PSG now travel to Villarreal for their fourth Champions League match of the season. Hakimi's attacking output from right-back will be tested against better opposition, and the question of whether a defender can sustain this kind of scoring threat in Europe is a fair one. For Le Havre, the next home fixture against Lorient on 8 November is already enormous.