Paris Saint-Germain opened up a four-point gap to Lens in the Ligue 1 title race as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's brace helped seal a comfortable 3-0 win over Nantes on Wednesday. 

After missing the chance to pull clear of second place at the weekend following a defeat to Lyon, PSG returned to winning ways to edge closer to retaining their top-flight crown. 

Parc des Princes was on its feet in the 13th minute after Ali Youssif was adjudged to have handled the ball inside the area when challenging Marquinhos for a header, with the spot-kick awarded after a VAR review as Kvaratskhelia coolly dispatched from 12 yards. 

Ousmane Dembele continued PSG's fast start as his shot at the near post was thwarted by Nantes captain Anthony Lopes, but Luis Enrique's side doubled their tally soon after. 

A sweeping counter led to Achraf Hakimi cleverly slipping Desire Doue in behind, with the Frenchman taking a touch before firing a sensational effort into the top-left corner. 

The Parisians ended the first half in the ascendency as Dembele rippled the side-netting, and it took them just five minutes after the restart to take the game fully beyond Nantes. 

Having collected Dembele's pass from the edge of the area, Kvaratskhelia brilliantly danced beyond Youssif and Frederic Guilbert before curling the ball home with aplomb. 

Kvaratskhelia almost bagged the match ball on the hour but saw his header from Senny Mayulu's corner tipped onto the crossbar by Lopes, with Fabian Ruiz also denied by the woodwork moments later as his deflected attempt hit the right post with PSG seeing out the match with ease. 

Data Debrief: King Kvaratskhelia gets PSG back on track

The pressure was on PSG heading into this match as they stared the possibility of losing back-to-back Ligue 1 games for just the second time under Luis Enrique in the face, but they produced a champions' response here to pull clear of Lens. 

And their triumph was led by the in-form Kvaratskhelia. Since March 11, which was the date of their 5-2 thrashing against Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie, no player has scored more than the Georgian's seven goals among players in the top five European leagues in all competitions. 

Kvaratskhelia also finished with team-high totals for successful dribbles (three), duels won (six) and shots on target (three), while Doue (eight) had more touches in the opposition box than PSG's number seven (seven). 

Luis Enrique's team were deserving of their win, too. They finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.15 from their 14 shots, while also restricting Nantes to an xG tally of 0.87 from their 11 attempts at Matvey Safonov's net.