Paris Saint-Germain defeated AS Saint-Etienne 5-0 at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Sunday but the result won’t be enough to clinch their fifth consecutive Ligue 1 title.
PSG spoiled Christophe Galtier’s home farewell but it was AS Monaco who spoiled the capital club’s hope of a late-season comeback to win the league. Monaco maintained their three point lead at the top of the table with a 4-0 win over Lille OSC and with a game in hand, Paris are all but mathematically eliminated. It was a valiant effort from Unai Emery’s men but dropped points earlier in the season were too much to overcome and they’ll have to settle for second place.
Monaco still aren’t champions, but you have to say that they have had a great season. We have to keep improving, always.–Unai Emery, PSG.fr
Against St. Etienne, Paris put on an attacking clinic against a side playing full of emotion with their manager on the touch line for the final time at home. Edinson Cavani and Lucas Moura bagged a brace each and Julian Draxler chipped in as well. For Cavani, his 49 goals in 48 appearances in all competitions this season brings him one shy of equaling Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s scoring record from last season. That and the Coupe de France is all PSG have to play for with two matches remaining in the season.
Moura, who scored a perfect 10 on WhoScored.com, was exceptional. He finished a lot more of his chances than usual and his passing accuracy (91 percent) more than made up for Angel Di Maria’s absence. He’s either battling for a place in the starting XI next season or auditioning for the Premier League where several teams are interested in his services. As for the rest of the team, it’s hard to pick out a player who didn’t put in a solid shift. In fact, not a single player was ranked below a 6 in Jonathan Johnson’s player ratings. Although, I would have docked the manager a few points for waiting until the final 10 minutes to bring on youngsters Giovani Lo Celso and Gonçalo Guedes. With the title all but gone, it will be interesting to see if Emery plays more of the reserves against Stade Malherbe Caen next Saturday.
Take a look back at our favorite images from the 5-0 win over St. Etienne and check back later this week for our coverage of PSG’s last Ligue 1 match of the season.
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