Champions, Golovin’s madness costs Monaco dearly against PSG

The ‘Champions League derby’ which pitted two Ligue 1 teams, Monaco and PSG, against each other on Tuesday night, was a concentration of twists and turns from start to finish. In fact, the Monegasques found themselves ahead by two goals, both scored by Folarin Balogun (the first just 55 seconds after the kickoff), and when Vitinha, on 22′, missed a penalty kick, the thought of many was that of the surprise result, with the reigning champions of the continental competition forced to chase.

Louis Enrique’s team, however, not only did not feel the backlash but even managed to end the first half on a draw, thanks to goals by Desiré Doué, who had just entered in place of Dembelé, at 29′ and Achraf Hakimi at 41′. Then, 20 seconds after the start of the second half, Aleksandr Golovin finally changed the game: the Russian was the protagonist of a very harsh intervention on Vitinha, which after review by VAR cost him a red card. A real madness for the’experienced midfielder, which in fact steered the match in favor of the opponents.

Francesco Lucivero

The Russian footballer, by the way, is on his second red card in two games: last Friday, in the Ligue 1 match against Nantes, he had in fact been cautioned twice in quick succession, getting himself kicked off the pitch. If in the league, however, it went well for Monaco, victorious 3-1, in the Champions League the story was completely different: with the man down, the Principality’s team progressively lost the field and PSG completed the comeback thanks to Doué&#8217s second goal of the evening.

The match then ended precisely with the score of 3-2: the team from the French capital will have the chance to defend the winning goal in front of their own public, with the knowledge that they can manage a one goal lead against a team that showed great talent but also a lot of fragility, especially at the mental level.