After second-place Marseille’s 2-0 win over Clermont, Monaco moved up to third place, seven points behind a shaken PSG.
On Saturday, three days before meeting Bayern Munich, a depleted Paris Saint-Germain team lost 3-1 to Monaco in the French league. This was PSG’s second straight loss across all competitions. (
After second-place Marseille’s 2-0 win over Clermont, Monaco moved up to third place, seven points behind a shaken PSG.
After going undefeated from August through December across all competitions, PSG is again vulnerable. Last month it was beaten by Lens and Rennes in the league, and on Wednesday it was eliminated from the French Cup by Marseille.
PSG coach Christophe Galtier admitted, “We have conceded a lot of goals since the restart of the season.” We need to regain our equilibrium defensively.
Neymar started despite the absence of injured teammates Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.
Tuesday night marks the beginning of the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, and Bayern Munich is coming to town.
Wissam Both of Monaco’s goals came from Ben Yedder. In the fourth minute, Aleksandr Golovin scored the game-winning goal for his club after the rebound of his effort was blocked by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
As Monaco continued to press forward, Ben Yedder scored a second goal in the 18th minute to make things look quite promising. Krepin Diatta stole the ball from El Chadaille Bitshiabu, and Ben Yedder smashed a slanting shot into the top corner.
Warren Zaire-Emery, PSG’s teenage midfielder, equalised with a tap-in goal off a low cross from Juan Bernat in the 39th minute.
Ben Yedder, however, doubled Monaco’s advantage with a looping drive off the post in the last seconds of the first half. He scored 14 goals, matching the league high of Reims striker Folarin Balogun.
Donarumma kept PSG from falling farther behind by halftime. He blocked a header from Ruben Aguilar and then stopped Golovin from scoring when the Russian was all alone in front of the net.
In the second half, Monaco took control, and with time winding down, Donnarumma made a diving save to deny a low shot from Monaco substitute Takumi Minamino.
Police used tear gas to quell a brawl outside the stadium caused a 45-minute delay in the start of the Clermont-Marseille match. Referee Ruddy Buquet summoned both teams back to the locker room as some players started having trouble breathing.
Alexis Sanchez, a striker for Chile, gave Marseille the lead in the 44th minute after he converted a penalty after Muhammed Cham had raised his arm to parry a free kick from Ruslan Malinovskyi.
After Mory Diaw saved Sanchez’s initial shot, Sanchez scored again in the 81st minute by heading in the rebound.
