Donnarumma deprived Golovin of assists. But what a circus the PSG and Monaco goalkeepers put on!

Donnarumma deprived Golovin of assists. But what a circus the PSG and Monaco goalkeepers put on!

Anatoly Romanov November 25, 2023, 01:20 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.

Mbappé scored 1+1 and the French champion defeated the Monegasques.

The most productive player in Ligue 1 this season, Kylian Mbappé (13+1 before this round) and the second player of the tournament according to the goal+pass system, Alexander Golovin (5+2), faced each other in the match between the first. and third teams in the French championship. Before the battle at the Parc des Princes, the reigning champion and leader was only three points ahead of Monaco. But today PSG increased its lead to six.

In the first half, Monaco played no worse than PSG, if not better. And Golovin was more noticeable than Mbappé. The Monegasques could have scored first with a relatively quick goal in the 11th minute, when the Russian midfielder took a perfect corner from the right wing. Alexander placed the ball directly on the head of center back Magass, who was completely free seven meters from the goal. Golovin was deprived of the assistance of Donnarumma, who took a difficult ball under the crossbar. And three minutes later, our Monegasque legionnaire dispersed the attack, which ended with Wanderson’s goal. But the goal scored by Adi Hutter’s team was disallowed for a slight offside.

Monaco did not close and tried to respond to PSG’s pressure. But still the class of the French champions prevailed. However, the Parisians scored a goal in the 18th minute thanks to a terrible mistake by Monaco goalkeeper Koehn. He dropped the ball after hitting the goal and Ramush scored with a shot.

However, four minutes later Donnarumma responded to Koen’s error with an even more terrible error. This was “bringing goods to all”! Playing the ball, the Italian simply passed it to Minamino, who gladly took advantage of Gianluigi’s gift. The goalkeepers put on a real circus in the first half. However, in fairness, it must be said that they saved us more than once. Donnarumma himself made a great save before the break, when Golovin dragged the ball through the center and cut off a penetrating pass to Minamino: the Japanese shot without interference from 10 meters and lost the duel to the Italian.

How the Russians played against the best French club:

Golovin will kill himself against PSG for the tenth time! How did other Russians play against the greats?

Luis Enrique finally adapted PSG’s game to Monaco and made adjustments: the team formed a defense of three during possession. The Parisians tried to penetrate the pockets between the three central and lateral defenders of the Monegasques. Mbappé wasted two crazy chances: Koen reflected the balls that Kylian had already seen into the net. And in the 38th minute, Magassa organized a curious penalty on his own goal: taking the ball out of the area, he hit Dembélé on the knee. Mbappé took the penalty and this time he shot under the crossbar with no chance for the goalkeeper.

The second half started with another cool save from Donnarumma after Minamino struck from 10-11 meters. Who helped the Japanese? Golovin again! The Russian, like a free artist, opened on the left, then in the center, then on the mid-band, looking for and finding the ball.

But otherwise, the Monegasques lacked spice. The Parisians gave the ball to Monaco, defended in the central block and hoped to exploit the free space. It didn’t work until the 71st minute, when Dembélé scored his first goal since he arrived at PSG. The visitors missed a quick free kick: the pass went behind Magass and Koehn missed the top corner.

And three minutes later, PSG, seemingly out of nowhere, scored big. Mbappé, who had disappeared a bit on the field, made himself noticeable with an assist to Vitinha, although in this episode Kylian was rather expecting a return pass behind the barrier. The Portuguese made a beautiful dribble from outside the area, here Koen was not to blame for the goal.

The loss of concentration with the score 4:1 cost Luis Enrique’s team to lose a goal after another three minutes. The PSG centre-backs let Balogun go behind, who converted the one-on-one. Before this, the Monaco striker’s performance made one wonder why Hütter left Ben Yedder on the bench, but when everything became clear, he finally showed himself.

Still, the French champion won a great victory (Maripan simply gave the ball to Kolo Muani in the episode of the fifth goal), but there were moments when the Parisians did not control the game and did not dominate. In shots, PSG minimally surpassed Monaco – 16:14 (on goal – 11:7, from the area – 14:11). Luis Enrique still has a lot of work to do. Mbappé made 55 touches of the ball in this match, shot four times on goal and made one pass. Golovin has 67 touches, made one miss and had five assists. Especially in the compositions of both teams. In the end, another magnificent pass from the Russian from a corner miraculously did not become a goal.