Monaco inflicted a fourth defeat of the calendar year on Paris Saint-Germain as Philippe Clement’s side closed the gap on the Ligue 1 leaders to seven points with a 3-1 win at Louis II Stadium.
Aleksandr Golovin and Wissam Ben Yedder struck early to give Monaco a two-goal lead after 18 minutes before Warren Zaire-Emery reduced the deficit.
Ben Yedder restored the hosts’ two-goal advantage on the stroke of half-time, and PSG – who were missing the injured Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe – were not able to mount a comeback.
It took the hosts just four minutes to open the scoring, Ben Yedder feeding Golovin who finished with aplomb.
With PSG rattled defensively, El Chadaille Bithsiabu was then robbed by Krepin Diatta close to his box and provider Ben Yedder turned scorer as he made him pay with an arrowed shot to the far corner.
Christophe Galtier’s charges gave themselves hope when Zaire-Emery, who recently became PSG’s youngest-ever goalscorer at the age of just 16, tapped home Juan Bernat’s cross at the far post.
But Monaco had been by far the superior team and thoroughly deserved their two-goal cushion as Ben Yedder grabbed his 14th league goal of the season after latching onto Salim Ben Seghir’s pass, holding off Bernat and firing past a helpless Gianluigi Donnarumma on the stroke of half-time.
With Neymar struggling to make an impact in the final third, PSG couldn’t make any in-roads in their attempts to stage a comeback. In fact, Monaco looked the more dangerous and would have made it 4-1 only for Donnarumma, who made a superb reflex save to prevent Sergio Ramos from putting the ball into his own net and also denied Breel Embolo from close range.
Indeed, PSG’s goalkeeper was the only visiting player who came out with any real credit, making his seventh save of the match to keep out Takumi Minamino’s effort with his trailing leg in stoppage-time.
The victory sees Monaco climb from fourth to second, ahead of Marseille and Lens who are yet to play this weekend.
