US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie.
Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash.
Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious win in their quest to qualify for Europe next season.
Photo: AFP
The principality side were seeking revenge after a 5-4 aggregate defeat by PSG in the Champions League knockout phase play-offs last month, when they squandered a two-goal lead before losing 3-2 in the first leg and came up short with a 2-2 draw in the return.
That result allowed Luis Enrique’s side to reach the last 16 and they are to put their title on the line against Chelsea, with the first leg in Paris on Wednesday and the return on March 17.
That would be a season-defining tie for PSG, who won the Champions League for the first time last season, before losing 3-0 to Chelsea in the FIFA Club World Cup final.
“It is not the best result going into the Champions League. We are aware of that,” Luis Enrique said. “When you play like that against a team in a very positive dynamic like Monaco, you pay for it.”
The result is a setback for PSG in their bid to win a fifth consecutive Ligue 1 title, with closest challengers Lens would be able to trim their lead at the top from four points to one if they beat bottom side Metz today.
This was PSG’s fourth league loss in 25 games this season, as many defeats as in the last two seasons combined.
They have been beaten seven times in all competitions this season, and four times this calendar year.
Luis Enrique should be concerned at how far away his team are from the remarkable form they showed in the second half of last season on their way to winning the Champions League.
“We are clearly in difficulty at the moment, but we need to maintain hope that will change,” he added. “Confidence is not just something you buy at the supermarket.”
One plus was the latest return from injury of last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele, who came off the bench in the second half.
However, he has started only 14 of PSG’s 40 games this season, and it remains to be seen how long he would be able to play against Chelsea.
Monaco were worthy winners, going ahead just before the half-hour mark.
PSG’s Warren Zaire-Emery gave possession away inside his own box, and the ball ricocheted into the path of Balogun who teed up French international Akliouche to score.
The hosts were wasteful with their final ball and Golovin showed them how it should be done on 55 minutes, the Russian applying a clinical first-time finish with his first touch having come on as a substitute after Vitinha inadvertently played the ball into his path.
PSG got one back on 71 minutes when Achraf Hakimi set up Barcola to score his 10th of the season with a first-time effort that took a deflection off Jordan Teze and beat Monaco goalkeeper Philipp Koehn at his near post.
However, Monaco snuffed out the PSG comeback, Balogun’s shot from outside the area going in via a touch off Nuno Mendes.
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