England legend David Beckham has sympathy with former club Paris Saint-Germain’s travails in Ligue 1 this season.

PSG have won the title the last two seasons and were hot favourites to make it a hat-trick. But this campaign has not been straightforward and Laurent Blanc’s side go into today’s clash against St Etienne in third place, four points behind leaders Lyon.

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Beckham, who finished his career in the French capital, told BeIN Sports: “You don’t realise until you play there but the league is very difficult to win.

“At Paris Saint-Germain they have some great players, a good manager and an unbelievable fan-base. So I hope they go on to win the league this year again. But it’s always tough.”

PSG might have slipped up again last weekend when they were pegged back to 2-2 by Evian but they recovered to win 4-2 before seeing off Bordeaux in the Coupe de France in midweek.

Blanc told reporters after the 2-1 win: “The essential thing was to qualify, which we did. So we can be happy with that.”

Today’s match is likely to be another stiff test, with St Etienne a point and a place behind PSG.

Les Verts are unbeaten in 12 league games and will be looking for revenge after a 5-0 thumping in the reverse fixture in August as well as defeat in the Coupe de la Ligue.

Meanwhile, Dimitar Berbatov scored the only goal as Monaco extended their Ligue 1 unbeaten run to six matches with a 1-0 win over Lille yesterday.

The Bulgarian struck in the 57th minute as Leonardo Jardim’s men made it six clean sheets in a row in the league. Lille meanwhile slipped to a second consecutive defeat after their recent good form had moved them away from the relegation zone.

Montpellier secured their third-successive Ligue 1 win with a 4-0 thrashing of Nantes. Paul Lasne, Kevin Berigaud, Anthony Mounier and Lucas Barrios struck for the rampant hosts.

A brace from Claudio Beauvue gave 10-man Guingamp a 3-2 victory over visiting Lorient. There was no such entertainment at Stade Armand Cesari, as Bastia and Bordeaux played out a goalless draw.