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Monaco came from behind to topple PSG at the Parc des Princes, French champions still winless after three rounds\
AS Monaco secured a major victory in Paris and deepened the unusually poor start to the league campaign of the reigning French champions. Filipe Luís's team celebrated a 2:1 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the third round of Ligue 1, played on September 4, 2026 at the Parc des Princes, even though the hosts were the first to take the lead. PSG captain Marquinhos scored in the 31st minute, but Monaco completely changed the course of the match after the break: Flávio Nazinho equalized in the 58th minute, and Stanis Idumbo scored the goal that completed the comeback in the 72nd minute. According to reports by L'Équipe and Football365, the Parisians applied heavy pressure late on, but goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký and the Monaco defense held out until the final whistle. Monaco therefore remained on the maximum nine points after three league matches, while PSG, following two draws in the opening two rounds, stayed on just two points and are still waiting for their first league victory of the 2026/27 season.
The result is particularly striking because of the different paths taken by the two teams at the beginning of the new season. Monaco opened the league campaign with a 1:0 away victory over Le Havre, then beat Marseille 2:0 at the Louis-II stadium, while in Paris they conceded for the first time this season and nevertheless recorded their third victory. PSG, on the other hand, drew 2:2 away at Rennes in the opening round after trailing 0:2, and then drew by the same scoreline away at Lille, where they scored both equalizing goals right at the end. The defeat by Monaco is therefore not an isolated slip, but the third consecutive league match in which Luis Enrique's team failed to impose the kind of result expected from the defending champions. After three rounds, the Parisians have scored five and conceded six goals, further highlighting the problems with game control and defending transitions that L'Équipe also pointed out during the match against Monaco.
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Marquinhos gave PSG the lead after a stronger Parisian spell\
PSG enjoyed more periods of control in the first half and gradually increased the pressure around Monaco's penalty area. According to Football365's chronology, before the opening goal the hosts were trying to create through combinations involving Désiré Doué, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Maghnes Akliouche, while Monaco spent much of the middle portion of the first half without a genuine opportunity to keep possession for longer periods. The key moment arrived in the 31st minute. Fabián Ruiz continued the move between the lines, Kvaratskhelia sent a sharp cross in front of goal, and Marquinhos arrived from deep and beat Hrádecký from close range. L'Équipe recorded the goal in the 31st minute, while some live services list it a moment later, but neither the sequence of the move nor the scorer is in dispute.
The lead allowed PSG to see out the first half more calmly. The Parisians tried to slow Monaco down through possession, while the visiting side looked for space behind the hosts' high-positioned players. Nevertheless, the team from the Principality had already shown during the opening 45 minutes that it could threaten whenever it won the ball and quickly shifted the point of attack. Nazinho was very active on the left side, while Paris Brunner tried to exploit the space between the center-backs and PSG's defensive line. The teams went into the break at 1:0, a scoreline that at that point reflected the impression that the hosts had more control, but it did not eliminate the danger Monaco were creating in transition.
Another important detail of the match was Maghnes Akliouche's appearance against the club where he established himself at senior level. PSG officially confirmed his arrival from Monaco this summer and a contract running until 2031, and the 24-year-old French international immediately became part of Luis Enrique's rotation. He started from the first minute against his former team, took part in several dangerous Parisian attacks, and left the pitch in the 69th minute when he was replaced by Ousmane Dembélé. That move came at a moment when the match had already turned and PSG were looking for additional individual quality in attack.
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Nazinho brought Monaco level, Idumbo completed the comeback\
The second half brought a significantly more aggressive Monaco. The visitors pushed their lines higher, pressed PSG's attempts to play out from the defensive third more quickly and more often reached situations in which they could attack the space behind the Parisian full-backs. The equalizer arrived in the 58th minute. According to L'Équipe, Jordan Teze sent the ball toward the far post, where Nazinho was left free enough to head home for 1:1. Marquinhos's first-half goal was the first Monaco had conceded in Ligue 1 this season, and Nazinho's equalizer marked the moment after which the mood on the pitch changed completely: the hosts had to accelerate again, while the visitors gained additional confidence.
Luis Enrique reacted with substitutions, but Monaco did not abandon their idea of breaking forward quickly after winning the ball. In the 64th minute, according to L'Équipe's report, Hrádecký first stopped Achraf Hakimi's long-range attempt and then gathered Kvaratskhelia's shot. Saves of exactly that kind kept the score level during a spell in which PSG were trying to immediately regain the lead. Soon afterward Ferran Torres, Mika Godts and Dembélé entered the field, further increasing the attacking profile of the French champions. But having more forwards did not automatically bring greater control of the space behind the ball.
The punishment came in the 72nd minute, from a move that summed up what Monaco had done best in the second half. Denis Zakaria gained ground in midfield and powerfully carried the ball forward, after which Aleksandr Golovin calmly played it toward Stanis Idumbo on the left side of the penalty area. The Belgian attacker struck with his left foot toward the near corner, and Matvej Safonov managed to get a touch on the ball but could not prevent it from going in for 2:1. Football365 and L'Équipe both describe the key role of Zakaria's driving run and Golovin's final pass. Monaco had thus turned a deficit into a lead in the space of fourteen minutes.
PSG then took on almost all of the risk. Dembélé and Godts stretched the play and looked for crosses, Hakimi pushed higher and higher, while Monaco dropped into a more compact block. In the 84th minute Ferran Torres put the ball in the net after Dembélé's headed layoff, but the goal was ruled out for offside. In stoppage time Dembélé had two more dangerous situations: one effort went past the post, while another was superbly saved by Hrádecký. Football365 states that Monaco held out until the end, and the final whistle confirmed one of the most important away victories of the early part of the French season.
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PSG went from two comebacks to their first defeat\
For PSG, the start of the league season is unusual primarily because the team had already been forced to rescue results in both previous rounds. At Rennes on August 23, the hosts took the lead through goals by Sebastian Szymański and Esteban Lepaul, but Ferran Torres came off the bench to score twice and earn the Parisians a 2:2 draw. AFP highlighted the importance of the Spanish substitutes after that match, as Fabián Ruiz was involved in creating both of Torres's goals. Five days later at Lille, PSG once again found themselves in a difficult situation: Hákon Haraldsson and Dilane Bakwa put the hosts 2:0 ahead, before Vitinha in the 91st minute and Marquinhos in the 95th rescued a point.
Against Monaco, the scenario was reversed. PSG took the lead for the first time in this league season and held the advantage at halftime, but they did not know how to protect it. That raises a different question from the one posed after Rennes and Lille. In the first two rounds, the Parisians showed an ability to come back late, whereas this time they lost control after holding a lead and producing a relatively stable first phase of the match. Three games are not enough for final judgments about a season, but a run of three matches without a victory already represents a significant departure from the standards the club has established in recent years.
PSG entered the season as the reigning champions of France. The Parisians secured the 2025/26 championship title on May 13, 2026 with a 2:0 away victory at Lens; according to reports at the time, it was their 14th French league title and fifth in succession. Luis Enrique also received several new options during the summer, including Akliouche, Ferran Torres, Mika Godts and Lucas Digne, while the team also won the UEFA Super Cup in August with a 2:1 victory over Aston Villa. For that reason, two points from the first three league rounds do not mean that PSG's overall quality has disappeared, but they clearly show that the transition into the new season has not been smooth.
The number of goals conceded is particularly noticeable. PSG have conceded six goals in three league matches: two at Rennes, two at Lille and two at home against Monaco. L'Équipe emphasized the team's unusual vulnerability in opposition transitions during the match in Paris. That weakness was visible in Monaco's winning goal, when Zakaria managed to carry the ball through a large area before Golovin and Idumbo finished the move. For a team that wants to control opponents through long spells of possession, losing its structure after giving the ball away can be just as important a problem as efficiency in front of goal itself.
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Monaco immediately developed a recognizable identity under Filipe Luís\
On the other side, Monaco have established clear results-based stability under their new coach in a very short period. The club officially appointed Filipe Luís at the beginning of July 2026, and L'Équipe reported at the time that the Brazilian coach had signed a contract until 2028. For the former Atlético Madrid and Brazil left-back, this is his first coaching job in Europe after his spell at Flamengo. In Brazil, from 2024 to 2026, he built a reputation as a coach who insists on organized pressing, discipline without the ball and rapid attacks into space, and with Flamengo he won the Brazilian league and the Copa Libertadores in 2025.
Monaco entered the new season after major changes in the dressing room and a disappointing end to the previous league campaign. Ahead of the season, L'Équipe recalled that the club had been forced to adapt to financial restrictions and the departures of important players, including Akliouche. At the same time, Filipe Luís was given the task of guiding the team back toward the Champions League places. The first three league matches cannot guarantee long-term success, but nine points against Le Havre, Marseille and PSG represent an almost ideal start. Additional value comes from the fact that Monaco finished the first two matches without conceding, while in Paris they responded to their first deficit of the season by scoring twice.
In that context, Nazinho is one of the summer signings already making a visible impact. The Portuguese left-sided player spent the previous season with Cercle Brugge, a club linked with Monaco, and L'Équipe reported in August that the transfer was worth around five million euros. He had already assisted Eric Dier for the winning goal away at Le Havre in the opening round, and at the Parc des Princes he became a scorer himself. His ability to play as a conventional full-back or as a high-positioned wide player gives Filipe Luís additional flexibility in building attacks. Against PSG, his goal also carried symbolic weight because it opened the way for the first major league comeback of the new Monaco era.
Idumbo, meanwhile, rewarded his role between the lines and on the left side of the attack with the winning goal. Monaco did not beat PSG simply by defending their own penalty area; the decisive moment came from a courageous move forward, Zakaria's ball-carrying and Golovin's composure in the final third. It was precisely that ability to quickly connect several players after a defensive phase that made the key difference in the second half. Once they took the lead, Monaco dropped deeper and accepted the pressure, but in the closing stages they had enough organization and enough quality from goalkeeper Hrádecký to protect the result.
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Monaco on top, pressure on the champions already rising in early September\
After the victory in Paris, Monaco have nine points from three matches and sit top of Ligue 1 at a moment when the rest of the third round has not yet been completed. Lille reached seven points on Thursday, September 3 with an away victory at Toulouse, so the result at the Parc des Princes guarantees Monaco at least a two-point advantage over the nearest recorded challenger before the continuation of the weekend. For a team seeking to return to the fight for Champions League qualification, such a start provides both a points cushion and psychological capital. Victories over Marseille and PSG in consecutive rounds add further weight to the achievement because they were secured against two clubs with the highest ambitions in French football.
For PSG, meanwhile, the next part of the schedule arrives at a moment when the coaching staff must find the balance between attacking width and security after losing possession. Luis Enrique has a deep squad and a large number of players capable of changing a match from the bench, as was already seen at Rennes and Lille, but against Monaco the substitutions were unable to produce another comeback. The hosts created enough late pressure to come close to equalizing, but Hrádecký stopped the most dangerous late attempt, while one Ferran Torres goal was ruled out for offside. In a league that PSG enter as multiple consecutive champions, every early loss of points naturally increases attention on their rivals.
At the same time, Monaco confirmed that their perfect start is not simply the result of a favorable schedule. After a narrow victory away at Le Havre and a more convincing performance against Marseille, Filipe Luís's team showed another dimension in Paris: the ability to respond after conceding. For PSG, the fact remains that the season has only just begun, but also that their first league victory cannot arrive before the fourth round. For Monaco, victory at the Parc des Princes represents a result that may carry far greater significance than merely three points, because the new coach, a reshaped team and several younger players already have confirmation in early September that they can beat the reigning champions on their own ground.
\Sources:\
\- L'Équipe – course of the PSG – Monaco match, goalscorers, key situations, lineups and reactions during the match (\link\)\
\- Football365 – final live report, description of the goals, substitutions and late chances at the Parc des Princes (\link\)\
\- Paris Saint-Germain – official confirmation of Maghnes Akliouche's transfer and contract until 2031 (\link\)\
\- AFP – report from the Rennes – PSG match and context of the Parisian comeback in the opening round of Ligue 1 (\link\)\
\- FBref – record of the Lille – PSG match, the 2:2 result and chronology of the goals in the second round (\link\)\
\- L'Équipe – appointment of Filipe Luís as Monaco coach, length of his contract and information about his previous work at Flamengo (\link\)\
\- L'Équipe – Monaco preview ahead of the 2026/27 season, changes in the squad and the arrival of Flávio Nazinho (\link\)\
\- theScore – result and key events from the Le Havre – Monaco match in the opening round (\link\)\
\- theScore – result and key events from the Monaco – Marseille match in the second round (\link\)\
\- AS USA – confirmation of PSG's 2025/26 French championship title following the victory away at Lens (\link\)\