AS Monaco exacted revenge on reigning Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain for eliminating them in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
Folarin Balogun marked his 100th Ligue 1 appearance by scoring once and adding one assist in Monaco’s 3-1 win over PSG at the Parc des Princes. The American forward continued his strong run of form this year, helping Monaco jump back into the top-five of the Ligue 1 standings.
Balogun set up Monaco’s opening goal in the 27th minute after a major defensive error from PSG at the back. Denis Zakaria forced a turnover from Warren Zaire-Emery before a loose ball fell to Balogun in the box.
Balogun then held up possession before laying off a pass for Maghnes Akilouche to kiss off the right post with a right-footed shot.
Alexandr Golovin doubled Monaco’s lead 10 minutes after halftime, coming off the bench only a minute sooner as an injury substitute.
Despite Bradley Barcola cutting the deficit for PSG after the hour mark, Balogun would ice the road victory with his 13th goal of the season in all competitions.
Akilouche won possession against Kang-In Lee before playing a pass for Balogun to stroke home from long-range. Balogun’s effort received a slight boost off a deflection but left PSG goalkeeper watching as it landed into the back of the net.
It marked Balogun’s fifth goal in his last five appearances and his sixth goal of 2026.
Monaco would hang on to extend its current league unbeaten run to seven matches, handing PSG only its third loss in Ligue 1 play this campaign.
Sebastien Pocognoli’s squad will next host Stade Brest on March 14 before traveling to Lyon on March 22 in their final two matches before the international break. Balogun will hope that he can carry his club form over to the U.S. men’s national team, who faces Belgium and Portugal in a pair of Atlanta friendlies.
Wow…..
Battle tested against one of the best in the world
FEB 17 / CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 1 OF 2 – Balogun SCORES in the 1st and 18th then Golovin had a red card in the 48th min – Monaco had to play defensively
FEB 25 / CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2 OF 2 – up 1-0 then Coulibaly had a red card in the 58th min – Monaco had to play defensively
MAR 06 / LIGUE 1 – The kid SCORES in the 73rd
3 goals in 3 games AGAINST PSG (yup, with Désiré Doué / Bradley Barcola / Warren Zaïre-Emery / Achraf Hakimi / Ousmane Dembélé)……absolutely love it
Hard to believe just a couple weeks ago people on here were talking about how we should go with Agyemang and Wright because they were scoring on Oxford United and Bristol City
No one, absolutely no one, said that Johnny, now you have gone too far lLOL
They know who they are.
See 2tones admittance below.
I genuinely love the way Balogun plays. He’s got so many tools. His movement is highly aware, opportunistic, and constant and he’s always looking for that little pocket of space in which to operate and to get off his defender’s back shoulder, you take your eyes off him for a second and he’s probably slipped you. He times his runs extremely well and he’s so fast that if he gets a step on you, forget it, he’s gone. He’s not a huge guy but he’s strong and he can hold the ball up, and he can also use it to connect to because he’ll drop deeper, hold it up, lay it off…and then haul ass down the field and arrive in the box in time to receive a cross. And he’s not selfish, he’ll let the team play through him as quick as he’ll try to be the hero, and he’s always willing to combine with somebody and can operate in a shoebox. His fitness is extraordinary and he’ll run and press for 90 if you ask him to. A lot of strikers are good for 60 and then they hit a wall.
I wish he finished a little more consistently. That’s it. That’s the one criticism I have of him. And that seems to be a mentality thing because Balogun goes hot and cold and he’s shown the full skillset when it comes to finishing – both feet, his head, and he just demonstrated a decent shot from distance on that goal against PSG.
But the dude’s ceiling is genuinely world-class and he’s been in that kind of form lately.
There’s a lot to like about Pepi and Wright and even Agyemang. Pepi and Wright are exceptional finishers and Agyemang will chase EVERYTHING and he can seriously use his size to impose himself. But there’s still a big gulf between Balogun and everybody else right now.
Balogun was on 4 league goals at that point and wasnt in his current vein of form. I said Wright potentially because Wright did start over Balo against Australia and scored 2 goals. I think both will be handfuls for opposing defenders. And then you have Pepi as a super sub striker.
2tone, you sometimes put too much stock in recency. If you watch all 4 strikers Pepi, Balo, Haji, and Pat, and I know you do. There are clear levels to their abilities. Poch and staff can evaluate talent beyond just looking at a box score or analytics. Sure Haji started against Australia but Balo had started and scored in the two previous matches. There is such an idea as rotation. Big Pat not only didn’t start against Australia or Ecuador he didn’t even get off the bench and wasn’t called in November. If all four are healthy it’s clearly Balo, Pepi, Wright, Agyemang and club goals doesn’t change that.
JR, 2tone
If 2tone wants to name Wright or Dom Dwyer, Brendan, Vasquez, Gyasi Zardes , Pefok, Gioachinni, Hoppe, Brian White, Josh Sargent, etc. as our starting #9 on March 7, 2026, he should go for it.
It doesn’t mean anything.
The starting #9 for Game #1 in the World Cup? That actually means something.
V: obviously, nothing anyone on here says means anything. Poch and the guys couldn’t care less about what we degenerates think.
JR,
The only individual player that this team will clearly miss if he ain’t around is Pulisic. I would have said Jedi also but clearly they have been working on workarounds for him for some time now. I’m not surprised but Jedi came back to soon, and it is endangering his WC. But I’m no doctor.
Flo is clearly the #9 but if Flo can’t go he’ll bring in the next guy and, from what we’ve all seen, that should be fine.
Pochettino seems to seriously believe in his next man up, “the collective is greater than the whole” philosophy.
Of course that clashes with most of what you see on SBI where:
1. We basically champion this unbelievable guy or that unbelievable guy and can’t believe that Pochettino would go into battle without Cole Campbell, Eric Palmer-Brown, Sabbi, Duane Holmes, Green or Fossey.
2. Most here automatically regard MLS players as inferior. And they might be inferior but for us to win the World Cup they only have to play over their heads for 8 games. Most people here think in terms of winning the EPL Championship or the Champions League . But compared to the World Cup that’s a lot of games. Even winning the Champions League requires about 15-17 games.
Can’t play left back Max might not be good enough to play in Europe for 30+ games over the course of a season but for 8 games? Win the World Cup and he’ll get signed by Wrexham once they get promoted.
The WC is a short tournament and we’ve all seen plenty of tournaments in all sports where an unlikely team has had a great run or even won it. You just never know.
And Wright scored again which puts him on 16 league goals. He just tied his best league total.