PSG celebrate title win over Monaco

Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick as Paris St Germain celebrated winning the Ligue 1 title with a 3-1 victory against Monaco.

Photo: AS Monaco

After failing to regain their crown in the past three matches, drawing one and losing two, PSG’s sixth title in the last seven seasons was confirmed prior to Sunday night’s game after Lille’s goalless draw at Toulouse earlier in the day.

It was not quite a party atmosphere at the Parc des Princes, owing to the fire this week at Notre Dame in Paris. PSG replaced the player names on the back of their shirts with the name of the cathedral while the front sported an image of the partially destroyed landmark.

During the pre-match warm-up, Mbappe greeted Paris firefighters and their children on the pitch.

Rony Lopes should have ruined PSG’s coronation by giving Monaco the lead after seven minutes but he scuffed his shot when through on goal, allowing Alphonse Areola to get a hand on the ball and make a save.

Mbappe punished his former club shortly afterwards, using his pace to get behind the visiting defence and on to Moussa Diaby’s perfectly-weighted pass before firing the ball past replacement goalkeeper Diego Benaglio and into the roof of the net.

Monaco responded well to falling behind and a sustained spell of possession inside the PSG half resulted in Aleksandr Golovin sending an effort narrowly wide.

A goal-line clearance from Marquinhos denied Martins a goal for Monaco and the PSG defender was at his best again shortly afterwards to nick the ball away from Carlos Vinicius as he looked to shoot.

Golovin could only head the ball over the crossbar when he should have hit the target at the very least but he got his goal with 10 minutes remaining, using his strength to hold off a defender before poking a low shot into the net from 12 yards.

“The game was pretty well balanced,” said ASM’s Leonardo Jardim. “Kylian Mbappé has shown his effectiveness, he’s the one who created the real difference in this game.”

“The future? For me it is the next games that we will play,” he continued. “I’m not worried, I know it’s a war that will be played until the end of the season.”

Press Association