It is a match of royalty. The Kings of France, PSG, undisputed, bullish, comfortable against the Princes from the Principality, Monaco, young, talented and hungry to steal the crown. Six months into the season, Ligue 1 is gearing up for the clash of all clashes, the one the whole country was dreaming of and has been waiting for so badly. Nice have been the story of the year so far, romantic, beautiful and Leicester-esque. But PSG against Monaco at the Parc des Princes, on Sunday evening, under the lights in a wonderful atmosphere, it doesn't get better than that.
It might still be a little bit early to be like a final. With a win, the Monégasques, current league leaders, would be six points clear of Paris, only third in the table behind Nice as well, with 16 matches still to be played and 48 points still to be won. Mathematically, it would not mean enough. Six points would not be a decisive enough cushion for Monaco. However, this game could have a huge impact psychologically. If Paris win, they come back level with their opponents and the momentum could well shift. It would be the big success Unai Emery has been looking for all season. So far, he's drawn with Marseille, twice with Arsenal and lost the reverse fixture in Monaco early in the season, as the sole victory against Lyon, albeit away, looks quite thin on his PSG CV. It would show that the real PSG is back.
The four-time defending champions have come on strong of late, winning six straight games in all competitions, while scoring 21 goals and conceding just once during that span. They are more clinical, more solid, more Emery than Laurent Blanc. In Edinson Cavani, they have one of the most in-form players in Europe, if not the most in-form: 28 goals in 27 matches in all competitions this season, 20 in 19 in the league, 4 in his last 2 matches. No one has reached the 20 goal-mark domestically in Europe's top five leagues apart from him.
Even his ratio of chances created to goals scored is improving. His confidence is so high that he looks unstoppable and is pulling the team with him towards excellence. He is certainly not a dressing room leader like Zlatan Ibrahimovic was but he brings something different, as well as goals. Whoever plays with him, Julian Draxler, Lucas Moura, Angel Di Maria, Goncalo Guedes, Javier Pastore or Hatem Ben Arfa (oh yeah, PSG have a lot of options there), he will only need the right service and he should do the rest.
PSG vs. Monaco is also Cavani vs. Radamel Falcao. The Colombian has been born again this season. He is not quite reaching the heights of the Uruguayan yet, as he "only" has eighteen goals in all competitions this campaign but considering his last two and a half seasons, it is no less a resurrection. On Wednesday evening, he was very opportunistic to score the only goal of the League Cup semifinal against Nancy to book Monaco a place in the final against ... PSG on April 1st at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon.
Like Cavani, Falcao also has all the perfect support to score goals. Thomas Lemar and Bernardo Silva are having the best seasons of their (short) careers and have been nothing short of exceptional, Valere Germain is the perfect partner up front and plays for him and the two full backs Djibril Sidibe and Benjamin Mendy provide the width and the crosses for the former Chelsea and Manchester United striker. His eye for goal does the rest.
Offensively, Monaco have been a goal machine this season. No other team in Europe has scored more league goals than them (64 in 21 matches at an average of over three per game). They have had 14 different goal scorers, an amount only beaten by Real Madrid (16) this campaign. Their 4-4-2 formation is working a treat for Leonardo Jardim, a manager who was for many years tagged as a defensive coach and who deserves huge credit now for having built such a superb offensive armada.
Like PSG, Monaco have also won their last six matches in all competitions, scoring fourteen times and conceded only four. However, they have lost twice away from home in the league this season, at Toulouse (3-1) and at Nice (4-0) and will travel to one of the most in-form home teams in Europe as Paris have lost only one of their last 49 league home matches. It was back in April 2016 against ... Monaco (2-0) of course!
However, what kind of physical state will the visitors be? No one has played more games in all competitions than them this season with 35 games already, like Manchester United and Southampton although Monaco have played more minutes than the two English clubs. They will have one day less to recover after their semifinal of the League cup (Paris played on Tuesday, Monaco on Wednesday) and PSG figures put a lot of intensity and aggression into the game too. Monaco will have to cope.
They will have to be clever as well, like they were back in August at home when they easily beat the champions (3-1). They won it tactically with Leonardo Jardim positioning Sidibé as a right midfielder to block Layvin Kurzawa from going forward and taking advantage of the space the Parisian left-back left behind him. Because PSG vs. Monaco is also Emery vs. Jardim, Thiago Silva vs. Kamil Glick, Marquinhos vs. Jemerson, Marco Verratti vs. Tiemoue Bakayoko, Lucas Moura vs Lemar, Di Maria vs Bernardo Silva and Cavani vs. Falcao. This is definitely a game of royalty.