Monaco opened up the Ligue 1 title race by inflicting a first home defeat of the season on the defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain on Friday night.
Maghnes Akliouche had Monaco ahead at half-time, with Aleksandr Golovin and Folarin Balogun scoring after the break for the visitors, while Bradley Barcola grabbed a consolation for PSG, who are still four points clear of second-placed Lens in the standings. Lens, however, have a chance to cut into that lead when they host bottom-placed Metz on Sunday.
Monaco, who were knocked out of the Champions League by PSG last month, moved up to fifth with 40 points, still 17 behind the leaders.
Akliouche punished the home side in the 27th minute after a poor clearance by Warren Zaïre-Emery in his own penalty area, with Balogun moving aside so the French international could hit a left-footed finish from close range. Golovin made it 2-0 in the 55th minute with his first touch after coming on as a substitute, sweeping home a square pass from Mamadou Coulibaly.
PSG were handed hopes of a comeback when Barcola pulled one back in the 71st minute with a right-footed effort from the left wing. However, Monaco took two minutes to restore the two-goal advantage as Balogun’s shot took a deflection off Nuno Mendes before nestling into the back of the net.
In Spain, Federico Valverde’s heavily deflected 95th-minute drive snatched injury-hit Real Madrid a 2-1 win at Celta Vigo in La Liga. The Uruguay midfielder needed a stroke of fortune at the death to pull his team to within one point of the leaders, Barcelona, who visit Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.
Aurélien Tchouaméni opened the scoring for Real early on but Borja Iglesias soon pulled Celta level at Estadio de Balaídos. Valverde’s shot, which flew into Celta’s net after bouncing off the former Barcelona and Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso, stopped his side going three consecutive top-flight matches without a win.
“There’s a long way to go, a lot of points left to play for … at this point it’s almost as if La Liga has not started yet,” said the Real Madrid head coach, Álvaro Arbeloa. “Every game you’re playing against a team that has their own objectives and each game will be a war. We came here with 10 players out so I think our win deserves a lot of credit.”
Napoli recorded their first home win in Serie A since late January with a 2-1 defeat of Torino to tighten their grip on third place and a Champions League spot. The reigning champions won thanks to goals from Alisson Santos after seven minutes and a 68th-minute strike from Eljif Elmas before Cesare Casadei scored a late consolation for Torino.
Napoli move to within a point of second-placed Milan, who need to beat leaders Inter in the Milan derby on Sunday to have any chance of staying in the title hunt. To add to Napoli’s positive night, Kevin De Bruyne came on as a second-half substitute for his first appearance since tearing his hamstring in October.
Bayern Munich cruised past 10-man Borussia Mönchengladbach 4-1 to widen their lead at the top of the Bundesliga to 14 points. Even without the injured striker Harry Kane, it was one-way traffic from the start as four different scorers were on target for Bayern.
“When Harry is out, we have other guys who can get the goals. Today we scored four,” said the Bayern head coach, Vincent Kompany. “Apart from the goal we conceded in the end, it was perfect. We showed good intensity.
Asked whether Kane would be ready for next week’s Champions League match, Kompany said: “Hopefully. If he makes it, then great. Otherwise we will do it with the lads we have.”
Luis Díaz, the league’s second-top scorer, opened the home side’s account in the 33rd miute with a superb volley for his 14th goal of the campaign before Konrad Laimer doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time.
Things took a turn for the worse for Gladbach in the 55th when Rocco Reitz received a straight red card for fouling Nicolas Jackson in the box. In the absence of Kane, it was Jamal Musiala who stepped up and converted the spot-kick to make it 3-0.
Jackson also got on the scoresheet in the 79th minute, tapping in Lennart Karl’s cutback, before Gladbach scored a late consolation goal through the substitute Wael Mohya.
