PARIS: Paris St Germain produced a woeful performance as they lost 3-0 at Monaco in Ligue 1 on Sunday with Wissam Ben Yedder scoring twice, a result that will put coach Mauricio Pochettino under more pressure less than two weeks after their Champions League exit.

PSG, on 65 points from 29 games, still lead second-placed Olympique de Marseille by 12 points after OM beat Nice 2-1 courtesy of an Arkadiusz Milik penalty on the stroke of halftime and a late goal by Cedric Bakambu.

Nice moved down from third to fourth on 50 points, two behind Stade Rennais who demolished strugglers Metz 6-1 with a Serhou Guirassy hat trick.

Strasbourg’s Champions League push stalled again after a fourth draw in five outings following a goalless stalemate at Lorient, while Olympique Lyonnais dropped points in the race for the European spots with a 0-0 draw at Reims.

Angers beat Brest 1-0 to end a seven-match losing run and bottom club Bordeaux lost 2-0 at home to nine-man Montpellier.

With Lionel Messi ruled out by a bout of flu, PSG showed close to nothing at the Louis II stadium 11 days after being knocked out of the Champions League last 16 by Real Madrid. Monaco climbed to seventh on 44 points.

“They played well, congratulations to them. They’re a good team, a great club,” PSG striker Kylian Mbappe said. “The goal is to get the 10th French title. We can win 8-0, 9-0, people will talk about the Champions League. Whatever happens we must respect ourselves, if we have a little bit of self esteem. We also need to respect the fans.”

Monaco captain Ben Yedder is now Ligue 1’s top scorer with 17 goals after his 25th-minute tap-in from a rebound, and an 84th-minute penalty.

Ben Yedder also helped in the build-up for German striker Kevin Volland’s goal for Monaco, making it 2-0 on 68 minutes in what was the real turning point of the game as PSG began to chase.

Mbappe and Neymar started for PSG and had a string of opportunities as the visitors enjoyed the lion’s share of possession but were largely toothless in attack.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2022