The Expert: Bernardo’s late show could shape Monaco’s season
“The first two times that I played here, we defended more than we attacked but today, we achieved a balanced match; Paris attacked, but Monaco did as well.” Leonardo Jardim’s summary of his Monaco team’s display at Paris Saint-Germain was heavy with nuance. The draw snatched by Bernardo Silva’s late goal was, of course, the most significant aspect of the night, returning the Portuguese coach’s team to the top of Ligue 1 and preserving the Principality club’s excellent results in the capital under Jardim. In his three Ligue 1 visits to the Parc des Princes, his side have garnered five points, and they haven’t lost.
Yet this felt like something more, somehow. Jardim himself touched on it. It wasn’t about continuing on top of the table or preserving a ‘lucky ground’ status. This was about confirming a change. Even if it wasn’t the fearsome Monaco that we have seen on the road many times this season, the current shift in the balance of the French domestic game was confirmed, with Bernardo’s equaliser the endorsement of that movement.
That PSG, the most possession-heavy team in Ligue 1, almost in rebellion against coach Unai Emery, with an average of 60.6% per game, should have more of the ball is no surprise, and they enjoyed only slightly less than the median against Monaco, with 54.6%. Yet Monaco, even if their more cavalier tendencies were well contained by the home team right until that late blow, still enjoyed more shots (14 to 11) and more efforts on target (7 to PSG’s 4).
The real concern for PSG, and their under-scrutiny coach Emery, is not the point gap - after all, they’re still only three off the top after this match, which you would expect any of Laurent Blanc’s sides over recent years to eat up with relish. It’s their burgeoning inability to master the biggest matches of their season, shrinking rather than growing into the occasion.
As Emery well knows, possession doesn’t necessarily equal control or domination. This draw brought an end to a run of six successive Paris wins in all competitions, but victories over Bastia, Metz and Nantes are not, with all due respect to those clubs, what Emery and his team will be judged on.
Genuine tests are few and far between, but Emery’s side has fallen short in most of them this season, losing away to Monaco, having to fight back hard to draw with Nice at the Parc in autumn, and failing to beat Arsenal twice in the Champions League, despite dominating both encounters. The efficiency and economy that the coach wants from his players still isn’t there yet, despite having Edinson Cavani in the form of his life. The Uruguayan’s successful penalty, which looked like giving his team victory here, was his 21st goal in 19 starts since moving back to centre-forward at the beginning of the season.
Cavani could hardly have done any more to contribute. He had four efforts at goal, landing three of them on target. He was tidy in his all-round play too with a 91.7% pass accuracy. Yet PSG’s reliance on their centre-forward was again clear, with the rest of the side getting just a single effort on target between them. It is clear that without Cavani’s goals, Emery would have a problem. The former accounts for exactly 50% of their strikes in Ligue 1, a higher proportion than Alessane Pléa or Mario Balotelli for Nice (29% and 24%, respectively) or even the dominant Alexandre Lacazette with Lyon (45%).
Naturally, Monaco and Jardim have to claim a lot of the credit. With Radamel Falcao and Valère Germain generally quiet, much of the crucial work on the night was done by Tiemoué Bakayoko, who succeeded with 92.9% of his passing attempts, and the ever-reliable Fabinho, who made a tackle, two interceptions and three clearances. Even Bernardo made three tackles, emphasising just how much Jardim gets out of each and every one of his players in a variety of situations.
They may have become synonymous with flair, but this was a display of Monaco’s gritty side too, showing their determination to cut out aberrations like September’s 4-0 crash in the derby at Nice. The loss of Marco Verratti, injured in Friday’s training session, clearly hit PSG hard, but the way in which their midfield trio of Thiago Motta, Blaise Matuidi and the Italian star’s replacement Adrian Rabiot were disrupted remained impressive. All three landed way below their season average of successful passes, with the numbers 88.8%, 84.6% and 85.4%, respectively.
Ultimately, though, it was Monaco’s ability to find a goalscorer from so many different parts of the team - they have 14 different goalscorers in Ligue 1 this season - that paid off, with Bernardo’s 5th goal of the season a memorable and a crucial one. It underlines, too, why many believe him to be the division’s outstanding player this season, creating something from a situation where nothing seemed on.
Paris need to find a way to control gala matches more effectively - especially with the Champions League double header with Barcelona coming up - but the tight contest here promises that the neutral has a very exciting Ligue 1 title race to look forward to, especially with Nice currently hot on the trail.
