PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain lost 3-1 at home to Monaco on Friday, dropping points in the French Ligue 1 title race.
Leaders PSG’s fourth league defeat of the season could be more serious, while rivals Lens will close a point behind the top of the table after beating bottom Metz on Sunday.
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Livewire winger Magnes Akliouche opened the scoring for Monaco and American forward Folarin Balogun sealed the win in the 73rd minute when his shot went wide.
Monaco beat PSG 1-0 in the league in September and have taken the lead in all four games this season, including two Champions League games.
PSG will host Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday.
Akliouche attacked in the 27th minute after poor defending from Warren Zaïre-Emery, who tried to dribble out of the box but lost the ball.
Balogun reacted quickly and combined with Akliuche on the right to fire the ball from the post.
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Akliusz scored in the same leg of the Champions League play-off second leg at the Parc des Princes. Paris Saint-Germain advanced to face Chelsea with a total score of 5-4.
Fifth-placed Monaco scored their second goal in the 10th minute of the second half when midfielder Alexander Golovin, who had just come on, received a cross from the right and slid the ball into the bottom corner. Soon after, he nearly scored again with a brilliant lob from 25 meters away.
Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé, who has missed the past three games with a calf injury, came on for PSG just after the hour mark but lacked sharpness.
Forward Bradley Barcola pulled a goal back with a deflected low shot in the 71st minute, but Balogun’s shot from the edge of the area sailed over the head of goalkeeper Matvei Safonov to restore the two-goal lead.
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Safonov was beaten again near the end despite Simon Atingra’s shot hitting the crossbar.
Aklius defends World Cup
Akliusz has made five appearances for France since breaking into the national team at the start of the season and efforts are underway to include him in coach Didier Deschamps’ World Cup squad later this year.
Akliuche’s long runs caused problems and midfielder Vitinha intervened in time to prevent him from shooting again late in the first half.
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