Les Parisiens beaten at Monaco

As the days go by, the big matches stack up for Paris Saint-Germain, who are in the midst of a monstrous set of fixtures. A difficult context, made even worse by the absence of several senior members of the squad, forcing Christophe Galtier to make changes to his group as they set off to face Monaco, one of the most in-form teams since the start of the year. There were no less than three academy graduates in the starting line-up, with Warren Zaïre-Emery, El Chadaille Bitshiabu and Timothée Pembélé, all getting the nod.

Les Parisiens knew it and the early exchanges set the scene: it wasn't going to be an enjoyable encounter, and the hosts' current form made it even more of a challenge. Rather deservedly, Les Monégasques didn't take long to confirm this initial impression, dominating possession and the goals, with an opener in the 4th minute when Golovin struck at goal (1-0, 4'), before Wissam Ben Yedder doubled their lead less than fifteen minutes later (2-0, 18').

Our Rouge et Bleu had it all to do, with a previously unseen starting eleven, but remained determined to turn the situation around. They were going to need to progressively find a way to start to get onto the front foot, while remaining vigilant at the back against an incredibly motivated Monaco side. Not an easy task for a team that was not used to playing together... And despite this, Christophe Galtier's side tried to get back into the game before half-time, even managing to reduce the home side's lead through Warren Zaïre-Emery, who found the back of the net after a superb team move started by Carlos Soler (2-1, 37').

But it didn't take long for Les Monégasques to cool any hopes of our side staging a come-back. An unstoppable Ben Yedder, added a third goal at the very worst moment, just before the break (3-1, 45'+2)... Of course, Christophe Galtier's men threw their all into the battle to try to claw themselves back, and Gigio Donnarumma's gloves were regularly called into action (23', 26', 35', 41', 61', 74', 92'). Some scenarios are more frustrating than others in football.

So Paris Saint-Germain fell to defeat in a very unique set of circumstances in the Principality. While they await the return of the troops, the squad will now turn their focus to the next step in a very busy schedule. On Tuesday, the prestigious Champions League will return to the Parc des Princes, with a gala match against Bayern Munich. Driven on by their talent, solidarity and perseverance to battle on despite everything going against them, our Parisians will be ready for the encounter.