Ligue 1: AS Monaco fall to 4-1 defeat against PSG
AS Monaco suffered a heavy 4-1 defeat to the mighty Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes under the eyes of President Dmitry Rybolovlev, in a match where Luis Enrique’s team’s offensive weapons flexed their muscles.
The Match
Starting the match on the front foot, Les Monegasques came close to opening the scoring through Takumi Minamino in just the fifth minute, only for Gianluigi Donnarumma to deny the Japanese star with a smart save.
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PSG made ASM pay for not converting this opportunity shortly after, as Vitinha’s crafty free-kick propelled the home side into an early lead.
Les Rouge et Blanc then levelled the ledger courtesy of Denis Zakaria’s classy finish following some crisp combination play between Soungoutou Magassa and Breel Embolo to set the passage in motion.
Both teams traded decent chances for the remainder of the first half, for the likes of Vitinha, Mika Biereth and Ousmane Dembele fired off unsuccessful shots.
With the scores even at the interval and everything still to play for, it was PSG who powered ahead again via Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who impressively weaved his magic to beat Radoslaw Majecki.
Dembele extended PSG’s advantage almost immediately, as he blasted home his near-post finish to leave Majecki with no hope.
Wanting to mix things up, Adi Hutter introduced Aleksandr Golovin, Eliesse Ben Seghir and Moatasem Al-Musrati, with the latter making his debut, in an attempt to get back into the contest.
While ASM improved and unleashed some solid efforts, they just couldn’t add to their tally. Dembele’s stoppage-time strike brought further frustration, on a night where PSG’s superstars made the difference in their smashing 4-1 triumph.
Hutter’s Debrief
“For me, we lost the game in the first half by missing too many opportunities in front of goal. With three or four chances early on, we had to lead, but in the end, Paris Saint-Germain deserved their victory and they showed it in the second half. Congratulations to Luis Enrique and his team, who are one of the best in Europe at the moment. It’s a shame, because I was happy with our performance in the first half, but we have to score more,” explained the Austrian manager.
“After the break, they wrapped up the match with two goals in quick succession. It was very difficult today to leave with a draw, even if I appreciated that the team never gave up. But in the end, four goals was too much, they showed far too much quality on the pitch. Over 90 minutes, we were not good enough to hope for anything else. Now we will return to Monaco and concentrate fully on the next match against Benfica in the Champions League.”
Key Stats
By the numbers, the fact PSG held the edge in terms of expected goals (2.89 to 1.07), total shots (16 to 9), shots on target (7 to 3), touches in the opposition box (39 to 22) and overall duels won (54 to 33) illustrated what a force to be reckoned with they were.
Focos On Benfica
Monaco will now rapidly shift their focus to their huge Champions League first leg play-off clash with Benfica next week, where they’ll need to be on top of their game to ensure they can secure a positive result at the Stade Louis II.