Paris Saint-Germain struggled from the first minute against Monaco, their injury-stricken side which is now also dealing with illness being torn apart by an aggressive home team.
They failed to find an attacking rhythm in response to Monaco's fast start, losing 3-1 and heightening fears of what could be a difficult 90 minutes against Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday, potentially without Lionel Messi.
Monaco thoroughly enjoyed the opening exchanges. Aleksandr Golovin took advantage of a series of ricochets inside the PSG box before poking home past Gianluigi Donnarumma for a 1-0 lead inside three minutes. Yissam Ben Yedder added a second about 15 minutes later, dispossessing young centre-back E.C. Bitshiabu and lashing the ball into the bottom corner.
A virus struck PSG's camp prior to the match, and with a litany of players - including Leo Messi and Kylian Mbappe - already sidelined, the Ligue 1 leaders faltered. There was some resistance, with teenager Warren Zaire-Emery pulling one back shortly before the break, but Ben Yedder quashed any notions of a comeback, scoring his second in first-half injury time.
Christophe Galtier brought Bitshiabu off at half-time, and also introduced some younger faces for more attacking thrust within the first few minutes of the second half. But none of the changes flipped the game.
The Parisians still have a healthy seven-point lead atop the table, and will likely do enough to win Ligue 1. This match, though, set off alarm bells ahead of a massive Champions League tie, and showed how bad PSG can be without their star men.
