Portuguese trio Bernardo Silva, Fabio Coentrao and Helder Costa were all on target as Monaco climbed to second in Ligue 1 on Sunday thanks to a 4-0 defeat of Toulouse.
Monaco still trail runaway leaders Paris Saint-Germain, who beat Angers SCO 5-1 on Saturday, by 21 points, but climbed three clear of OGC Nice, who had been second overnight after their 2-1 win at home to Lorient.
“The thing will be to keep a minimum of three points between us and third place until the end of the season,” Monaco midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko said.
The victory also left Monaco nine points clear of Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique de Marseille, who contested a high-octane 1-1 draw at Lyon’s new stadium in Sunday’s late match.
Marseille can thank their captain and goalkeeper, Steve Mandanda, for his 10 saves, one of them a magnificent one-handed stop from a Mathieu Valbuena strike just before Marseille’s 65th minute opener.
The visitors went ahead against the run of play when Remy Cabella unleashed a fierce strike from the edge of the box when perfectly teed up by Michy Batshuayi.
While Lyon equalized through Corentin Tolisso on 79 minutes to set up a pulsating finish, Lyon may see this as two points dropped.
Third last season behind PSG and Lyon, Monaco outclassed relegation threatened Toulouse as Argentine Guido Carrillo also got on the scoresheet.
It was the first time the team have scored four this season and they did so with new recruit, Brazilian striker Wagner Love, watching from the stands.
“We played well for a change,” Monaco’s Portuguese handler Leonardo Jardim joked afterward.
“And we saved a penalty at 2-0 which may have changed the game,” Jardim said of Croat goakeeper Danijel Subasic’s fine effort to keep out Wissam Ben Yedder spot-kick.
AS Saint-Etienne blew a chance to climb to fourth when they gave up a last-minute goal at Stade de Reims, who earned a 1-1 draw which saw them climb clear of the drop zone.
On Saturday, Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring for PSG at the Parc des Princes with his 17th league goal of the season before Lucas doubled the lead for Laurent Blanc’s side just before halftime.
The floodgates then opened after the break with Gregory Van der Wiel rounding off a superb team move for PSG’s third, only for Pierrick Capelle to pull one back, but Angel Di Maria then scored twice in the space of four minutes to complete the rout.
Hatem Ben Arfa netted his 10th goal of the season as Nice beat Lorient 2-1, while on Friday, new Rennes coach Rolland Courbis oversaw their first home win in 10 matches — 1-0 over Gazelec-Ajaccio — as they climbed to fourth.
Troyes finally registered their first win of the season after coming from behind to win 3-1 at Lille OSC, with Girondins de Bordeaux rallying late on to draw 2-2 at Nantes.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
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