Henry suffers debut defeat

PARIS: Thierry Henry suffered defeat in his first match as a head coach when his 10-man Monaco side slumped to a 2-1 loss at Strasbourg on Saturday to drop into the Ligue 1 relegation zone, while Paris Saint-Germain eased to a 10th straight victory to start their title defence.

The principality club have failed to win in 11 games in all competitions since the opening weekend of the French top-flight season, and are only above bottom team Guingamp on goal difference.

Monaco, who were runners-up to PSG last season, are now 24 points adrift of the reigning champions after they cruised to a 5-0 thrashing of Amiens at the Parc des Princes despite resting several key players.

A dreadful error by Monaco’s third-choice goalkeeper Seydou Sy gifted Strasbourg midfielder Adrien Thomasson an early opener, and substitute Samuel Grandsir was sent off midway through the second half.

Lebo Mothiba doubled the advantage, and a late Youri Tielemans penalty was a mere consolation for the 2017 Ligue 1 titlewinners.

“It wasn’t easy, we tried to put something in place which worked at the beginning, and then we conceded that goal that I don’t need to describe... Human error, I don’t want to wipe the floor with anyone,” said the 41-year-old Henry.

Paris Saint-Germain continued the blistering start to their Ligue 1 title defence as Kylian Mbappe scored again earlier on Saturday.

Coach Thomas Tuchel left key men Neymar, Thiago Silva and Thomas Meunier out of the squad altogether at the Parc des Princes with Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Napoli in mind, but PSG had more than enough to see off Amiens.