PARIS: Radamel Falcao is making Monaco fans forget Kylian Mbappe’s departure from the French champions.

The Colombian striker added two more goals to his impressive tally this season as Monaco heaped more misery on struggling Lille with a 4-0 win to provisionally move level on points with Ligue 1 leaders Paris St Germain on Friday.

New Lille coach Marcelo Bielsa is under increasing pressure, as his men are now winless in six matches since their opening-day victory over Nantes and stay at the 17th place in the league table.

After scoring nine in Monaco’s opening six matches for the most prolific start to a season by any player in the league in 40 years, Falcao took his total to 11 with the brace.

He has more goals than any other striker in the top five European leagues so far this season.

Despite Mbappe’s move to rivals Paris St Germain during the summer, Monaco have retained their attacking verve, with 21 goals in seven matches.

Stevan Jovetic, who joined from Inter Milan, scored his first goal for the Riviera team to open the scoring. Rachid Ghezzal doubled the visitors’ lead from Almamy Toure’s cross at the half hour mark, then Falcao made it three from the rebound after Rony Lopes’s effort was thwarted by goalkeeper Mike Maignan.

Falcao sealed Monaco’s win from the spot after Jorge was brought down by Rominigue Kouame in the box.

The next outing for Monaco is their Champions League match against Portuguese giants Porto on Tuesday — and they look well-oiled for the occasion.

“Now is the moment to prepare for the match with Porto. For us, the next match is always the most important,” said Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim. “Winning 4-0 at Lille, it’s a great result.”

In Friday’s first match, Mario Balotelli scored his sixth goal of the season in all competitions as Nice fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Angers at the Allianz Riviera.

The visitors forged ahead thanks to first-half goals from Mateo Pavlovic and Karl Toto Ekambi, but Balotelli’s spot-kick and Ismael Traore’s comical own goal handed Nice a point.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2017