Henry still looking for first Monaco win — but faces rampant PSG next

Thierry Henry needs to pick up a win from somewhere soon, but facing PSG is hardly an easy game in which to turn a season around.

PSG became the first team in Europe’s top five leagues to win their first 12 matches of the season last weekend, while new Monaco boss Thierry Henry is still searching for his first win since taking over from Leonardo Jardim.

Just two seasons ago, Monaco reached the semifinals of the Champions League, but now find themselves second bottom of Ligue 1, ahead of Guincamp only on goal difference, with almost a third of the season gone.

During the midweek, Monaco were beaten 4-0 at home to Club Brugges, who went 3-0 up within 25 minutes, meaning they are already out of this season’s Champions League with two games remaining.

The hope for Monaco is that PSG will either be complacent or will have been tired by their 1-1 draw in Italy against Napoli.

Henry is winless in his first five games in charge of Monaco, with three defeats in that period. In fact, Monaco have only won once all season — and that came at the start of August on the opening day of the league campaign. They’ve lost 10 times since then.

Key battles

In the center of the pitch, Youri Tielemens will have a huge task up against Marco Verratti and Adrien Rabiot. PSG are normally dominant in possession and Monaco will do well to cut out the passing lanes into the visitor’s front three. Tielemens will be vital in doing that.

In wide areas, Nacer Chadli will need to be on his best defensive game and will have to track Thomas Meunier, while Djibril Sidibe faces the unenviable task of keeping tabs on Neymar.

Radamel Falcao will be the man Monaco turn to for goals, of which they will surely need at least one if they are to get even a point from the game; he will probably face two of Thiago Silva, Marquinhos and Presnel Kimpembe.

At the other end, Kamil Glik and Jemerson will match up with Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe, who have 16 league goals between them this season already.

Previous meetings

PSG have already beaten Monaco this season, winning 4-0 in the Super Cup at the beginning of August. They managed that result with Neymar on the bench for over three-quarters of the game and Kylian Mbappe given the entire game off having recently returned from winning the World Cup.

Last season, the sides faced each other three times, and PSG comfortably won each and every one of them.

In November, they won 2-1 at Stade Louis II thanks to goals from Edinson Cavani and Neymar, before Joao Moutinho pulled a consolation back for the hosts.

In April, PSG won 7-1 at home against Monaco and were 4-1 up at half-time. Cavani, Giovani Lo Celso and Angel Di Maria all scored two each in that one, with Radamel Falcao also scoring an own-goal.

PSG also won 3-0 at home in the French league cup, with Cavani bagging twice there too.

You have to go back to August 2016 for a Monaco win of any kind in this fixture, with 4-1 and 5-0 defeats coming in the meantime. Monaco have only won two of the last 18 meetings between the teams.

Henry will be hoping to pull off a miracle, but all the form points to another PSG victory.