It was no secret on Tuesday night who was entering the pitch of the Parc Des Princes with more anxiety. But what was also no secret was which side walked off the pitch with sheer satisfaction and in some ways, saved the likes of their coach, Laurent Blanc. Paris St Germain had a point to prove against Barcelona, but with the squad in heavy doubt over the loss of 3 vital players, it was reckoned that Les Bleus would struggle to even draw the Spanish giants. Luckily for Blanc, Paris surpassed that fear by miles and didn’t just edge a win, but dominated one in a fantastic fashion.
A 3-2 win with goals coming from many unlikely places, the Parisians have proven their long awaited point: they can still function well without their leading man, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Now we shouldn’t jump to far ahead of ourselves, as Paris have been guilty of losing their stylish form on more than one occasion without the Swede, but this thought is a perfect step in the right direction, not only for the squad as whole, but for Blanc.
The next test that awaits the Parisians is title contenders from last season, AS Monaco. A club whose lack luster appearances since the beginning of the season haven’t shed much threat on Paris, but lao have no intent of being pushed over by Les Bleus. Paris will continue to be without Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic but either way, Monaco has a quite a few things against them in their match on Sunday, one of which being that it is at the French fortress that is the Parc Des Princes.
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Paris has a brilliant record of playing at home, yet last season when the two sides met a draw was the outcome. This was one of the final matches Falcao played before his devastating knee injury which forced him onto the sidelines and unavailable for the 2014 World Cup. Now that Monaco has lost both of their Colombian stars, Falcao and James, not much has been formidable in the attack for the French Riviera side. Although Bulgarian forward Dimitar Berbatov has happily taken the place of Falcao as the front man, the likes of his presence on Sunday has already been ruled out due to suffering an ankle injury against Zenit St Petersburg Wednesday.
Monaco is a whopping 9 points behind Paris St Germain, sitting in 10th place on the Ligue 1 table. This is surely a shadow of the club they strived to be last year–not to mention the fact that they have little momentum to play off of after their mediocre 0-0 draw against Zenit St Petersburg this past Wednesday. According to UEFA.com coach Leonardo Jardim felt like Monaco played for what they deserved:
"“Yes, it was a good result. We had a good game today, very intense, high on quality. We counterattacked well. We created two or three dangerous situations for our opponents. I think we got what we deserved.”"
If that is Monaco’s point of aim, than their trip to Parc Des Princes will be rough and prove to be a long day.
Prediction: Paris St Germain 2-0 AS Monaco