Desire Doue (right) celebrates with teammates after scoring Paris Saint-Germain’s third goal against Monaco.
Monaco: Paris Saint-Germain recovered from a shambolic start as Desire Doue inspired a comeback from two goals down to beat Monaco 3-2 in the principality in the first leg of their Champions League knockout phase play-off tie yesterday.
United States star Folarin Balogun opened the scoring after just 55 seconds and found the net again on 18 minutes to put Monaco in control against their French Ligue 1 rivals at the Stade Louis II.
Vitinha then missed a chance for the reigning European champions to reduce the deficit when he had a penalty saved and last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele came off injured before the half-hour mark, but his replacement Doue sparked the comeback.
He pulled one back and then helped set up Achraf Hakimi for the equaliser just before the break, and Monaco then had Aleksandr Golovin sent off right at the start of the second half. Doue then scored the winner on 67 minutes.
It was a remarkable game and the result keeps the tie alive going into the return leg in Paris next Wednesday, but Luis Enrique’s PSG side are now strong favourites to seal a place in the last 16 in front of their own fans.
PSG came into this game having been knocked off top spot in the French league last weekend following a defeat at Rennes, with Lens replacing them at the summit.
However, they are a huge 20 points clear of Monaco, who find themselves languishing in eighth due to an inability to put together a consistent run of form.
Nevertheless, Monaco notably held Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus at home during the league phase in Europe and also won 1-0 at home to PSG in Ligue 1 in November.
Meanwhile, Vinicius Junior scored the winning goal and was at the centre of a racism storm as Real Madrid beat Benfica 1-0 in the play-off first leg in Lisbon.
The match was halted for more than 10 minutes early in the second period after Brazilian Vinicius seemed to accuse Benfica’s Argentine midfielder Gianluca Prestianni of calling him “mono” -- the Spanish word for monkey -- leading to French referee Francois Letexier applying the racism protocol.
Earlier in Istanbul, Dutch midfielder Noa Lang scored a brace as Galatasaray thumped Juventus 5-2 in a pulsating contest in the first leg of playoff.
In a nerve-shredding atmosphere, Luciano Spalletti’s Juventus actually led 2-1 at half-time after Teun Koopmeiners replied to Brazilian midfielder Gabriel Sara’s opener with a brace of his own. But Colombian full-back Juan Cabal was dismissed for two bookings in a calamitous second half as Lang’s brace and goals from Davinson Sanchez and Sacha Boey sunk the Old Lady, who faced a miserable return to Turin.
