Monaco take step closer to French title
PARIS: Player of the year nominee Bernardo Silva was on target as Monaco eased to a 3-0 win at Nancy on Saturday to leave them on the brink of a first French title since 2000.
Monaco had seen nearest challengers Paris Saint-Germain trounce bottom club Bastia 5-0 earlier, but they responded in style with a comfortable victory at the Stade Marcel-Picot. They are three points clear of defending champions PSG at the Ligue 1 summit, with a game in hand and a superior goal difference.
That means one win from their remaining three games will likely suffice for Leonardo Jardim’s side to take the trophy to the Mediterranean principality for the eighth time and first in 17 years. “With this victory we are a little closer to our objective but nothing is done, it’s not finished,” said Jardim.
“We need to maintain this attitude in our last three matches.”
This might have been an awkward trip for Monaco, three days before they try to overturn a 2-0 deficit in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against Juventus.
But Jardim has repeatedly stated that beating PSG to take the domestic crown is the main objective and almost all his main players started, although Tiemoue Bakayoko and teen sensation Kylian Mbappe dropped to the bench.
Valere Germain came in and he latter created the third-minute opener, his cross from wide on the right taking a deflection off Tobias Badila that caught out goalkeeper Guy Roland Ndy Assembe at his near post.
Silva doubled their lead five minutes from half-time, heading in a Thomas Lemar cross at the end of a breakaway. It was a seventh league goal of the season for the Portuguese winger, nominated for France’s player of the year award along with PSG’s Marco Verratti and Edinson Cavani and Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette.
Mbappe came on as a late substitute and set up Lemar to make it 3-0 with four minutes remaining, as Monaco made it nine straight league wins. VERRATTI CONTROVERSY - Earlier, a hotly contested Verratti goal helped PSG to a comfortable 5-0 win over bottom club Bastia.