Ligue 1

Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain Defend Coupe De La Ligue

The Coupe de La Ligue trophy.
Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain Defend Coupe De La Ligue

The Coupe De La Ligue has been a cup football tournament that Unai Emery’s Paris Saint-Germain specialize in, and despite what will be an expected shakeup of the roster and coaches over the summer, the class of the PSG list was head and shoulders over Leonardo Jardim’s AS Monaco in a 3-0 final victory at the Matmut Atlantique in Bordeaux.

Edinson Cavani scored in the eighth and 85th minute while Angel Di Maria recorded some 21st minute insurance in a match that saw PSG attack and defend with urgency. Cavani could have had a hat trick but a would-be goal in the second half was ruled back for offsides. This was a show for Kylian Mbappe, the Stoppage Time’s Man of the Match, for his clinical prowess and technical ball skills.

Paris dominated possession (63 percent to 37 percent), shots (15 to 11), shots on goal (10 to five), fouls (16 to seven), corners (nine to four), offsides (five to two) and saves (three to two). It was a clean display from PSG in their best performance this season against the defending Ligue 1 champions with one match remaining on April 15 that could very much decide the league title race.

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With the victory, Paris Saint-Germain can now turn their attention to wrapping up the Ligue 1 Hexagoal. The magic number is eight, and AS Monaco can only delay the inevitable when they are away to Rennes (April 4, 9:45 a.m. PT) and at home to Nantes (April 7, 8 a.m. PT). As for Paris, their next match before the possible decider against Monaco at the Parc des Princes is away to AS Saint-Etienne (Apr. 6, kickoff 11:45 a.m. PT).

Should Monaco lose their next two games and Paris win their next match, the title race will be over before the meeting. Otherwise, if Paris win their next two games on the league schedule, PSG can look towards booking a place in the Coupe de France final with SM Caen away being the next contest on April 18.

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@joryansalazar

Jo-Ryan Salazar is a writer for The Stoppage Time, a soccer blog powered by Azteca Soccer. A supporter of the Los Angeles Galaxy since 1996 and a committed supporter since 2002, Jo-Ryan also follows Chelsea FC, Melbourne Victory, FC Tokyo and Paris Saint-Germain. Apart from soccer, Jo-Ryan is an administrative assistant for a local nonprofit in Long Beach, California and also does photography, photo-editing and fictional writing.

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