Monaco 2-3 Paris Saint-Germain: Doue masterclass leads comeback against 10-man hosts

Desire Doue scored twice as a substitute as Paris Saint-Germain recovered from 2-0 down to defeat Monaco – who had Aleksandr Golovin sent off – 3-2 in the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie.

Doue was only summoned off the bench in the 27th minute following an injury to Ousmane Dembele, but he joined Folarin Balogun in grabbing a brace, either side of helping to create a goal for Achraf Hakimi.

It took just 55 seconds for Monaco to make the breakthrough, with Golovin hanging over a pinpoint cross from the left for Balogun to nod into a gaping net.

Balogun’s second goal arrived in the 18th minute, with the United States international slotting beyond Matvey Safonov after being released in behind by Maghnes Akliouche.

Wout Faes gifted PSG a route back into the game when he chopped down Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in full flight inside the area, but Philipp Kohn dived right to parry Vitinha’s penalty, and the visitors then received a further blow when Dembele limped off, having been a pre-match fitness doubt.

However, Dembele’s exit actually prompted PSG’s fightback as his replacement Doue drilled in off the far post, and then, four minutes before half-time, it was his saved shot that fell kindly for Hakimi to fire back across goal and make it 2-2.

Things got even worse for Monaco three minutes into the second half, with a VAR review resulting in Golovin being sent off for scraping his studs down the shin of Vitinha.

Doue’s sensational showing continued when he drilled into the bottom-right corner to complete the turnaround in the 67th minute, after a neat offload by Warren Zaire-Emery, though PSG were unable to turn their dominance into a fourth goal thereafter.

Data Debrief: Another red for Golovin as PSG fight back

Golovin’s red card was his second in as many games across all competitions, having also been sent off against Nantes in Ligue 1 on Friday.

But PSG were already in the ascendancy by the time of the Russian’s departure. Doue scored his first goal just one minute and 59 seconds after coming off the bench, the fastest goal by a substitute in the Champions League this season.

And he later became the second substitute to score multiple goals for PSG in a Champions League game, after Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick versus Club Brugge in October 2019.

PSG’s victory was only their second in the Champions League when trailing by two or more goals (also 3-2 versus Manchester City last January), and they will argue the result was warranted after winning the expected goals (xG) battle by 2.48 to 1.19.