12-27-2019, 08:36 AM
Paris, France (SportsNetwork.com) - Paris Saint-Germain will hope to get its domestic season on track on Sunday when Les Parisiens welcome fellow big- spenders Monaco to the Parc des Princes. After coasting to its second consecutive Ligue 1 title last season, things have been a bit more difficult for PSG this time around. The club has yet to lose a contest in Ligue 1 play, but it simply hasnt been firing on all cylinders and sits in fourth place in Ligue 1 with 14 points, five behind league-leading Marseille. PSGs best result of the season came on Tuesday in Champions League group stage play as the club pulled off a 3-2 win over Barcelona at the Parc des Princes without the services of star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The home side opened the scoring against the Catalans after just 10 minutes when David Luiz fired home Lucas free kick, but Barca answered almost immediately as Lionel Messi equalized after a nice exchange with Andres Iniesta after 12 minutes. PSG edged back in front just before the half-hour mark as Thiago Motta took a corner. The Italians ball to the back post took Barcelona goalkeeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen and found Marco Verratti to head home. After the break Les Rouge et Bleu came out with the same attacking intentions. Released down the right, Gregory Van der Wiel drove an excellent cross into the middle where Blaise Matuidi arrived to drill the ball home past Ter Stegen for a 3-1 lead in the 54th minute. But Barcelona came back again as Daniel Alves crossed from the right for Neymar in the area. The Brazilian controlled and fired home in the 56th minute, but PSG held on for a massive result. It was a great match, a great win. We needed the points. We enjoyed a great moment this evening, said PSG head coach Laurent Blanc. The players were more focused and motivated than usual. All the ingredients were there for a great performance, but we still had to go out there and do it. I was convinced the team hadnt lost all its virtues. The most important thing for me tonight was to show that we are still a team. We celebrated a great match this evening against a great team that were undefeated and hadnt conceded a goal this season. We scored three goals, it was a great display and were very happy, Matuidi said. I scored but the most important thing was to win. Its a result that shows that Paris is a great team. We know that in the big games, we stand up. But the real sign of great teams is to do it every weekend. We will try to do it. Tonight was a victory for a whole team, a whole club. Its been an underwhelming start to the season for Monaco as well as the principality club finds itself in 12th place with 10 points. Monaco finished as runners-up last season behind PSG, but its been a different story this season as the club is struggling to find goals after the departures of James Rodriguez to Real Madrid and Radamel Falcao to Manchester United. The club is winless in its last two matches across all competitions following a scoreless draw against Zenit in the Champions League on Wednesday and a 1-0 loss to Nice in league play on Sept. 9. A victory in the match that has been dubbed El Cashico due to the clubs high-spending ways would go a long way toward restoring Monacos form and confidence. Also in Ligue 1 on Sunday, Lyon welcomes Lille to the Stade de Gerland, Guingamp battles Nantes, and Saint Etienne hosts Toulouse at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. Saturdays action sees Caen hosts Marseille, Bastia face Lorient, Evian battle Metz. Nice welcomes Montpellier to the Stade Municipal du Ray, while Rennes hosts Lens at the Stade de la Route de Lorient. On Friday, Odair Fortes scored just past the half-hour mark to lift Reims to a 1-0 win over Bordeaux. Balenciaga Speed Trainer Pas Cher ... maybe even more than that. Maybe all season I have to take a few blows. Air Max 97 Homme Pas Cher . Marek Hamsik, who had earlier missed a penalty, headed Napoli in front in the 23rd minute and Pandev added a second goal five minutes from halftime. Alessandro Matri got Juventus back into the game just after the break but Pandev was on hand to score again in the 68th. http://www.chaussurepascherchine.fr/gros...lde.html.Y. - The New York Islanders are brimming with confidence these days, thanks to a standout goalie and a newfound winning attitude. Air Max 720 Femme Pas Cher . Vargas (8-3) allowed four singles and two walks while striking out five, allowing only two runners from a diluted Twins lineup to reach second base. Mike Moustakas and Jarrod Dyson hit RBI singles in the second inning against Kevin Correia (4-10), and that was all Vargas needed. Air Max 270 Pas Cher .com) - On a night the Bulls played without Derrick Rose, it was time for Pau Gasol to take charge.SAN ANTONIO - Too big. Too strong. Too fast. Baylor was too much of just about everything for Creighton and Doug McDermott to handle. And because of it, the sixth-seeded Bears are rolling out of Texas toward California and the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 after an impressive 85-55 win Sunday night in the West Regional. Isaiah Austin and Canadian Brady Heslip each scored 17 points and Baylor used suffocating defence to shut down McDermott, ending the career of one of college basketballs most prolific scorers. "We did a good job making it tough on him," Bears coach Scott Drew said. McDermott, who averaged 27 points this season, finished with 15 but had just three in the first half as Baylor built a 20-point lead. McDermott ranks fifth on the NCAA career scoring list with 3,150 points. Baylor (26-11) had five players score in double figures and shot 64 per cent in one of the dominant performances of the tournament. The rest of the West bracket may want to pay attention to this one. A team that looked like a wreck six weeks ago with a 2-8 start in the Big 12 is brimming with confidence to match all that muscle in the lineup. "We take pride in people hating on us, and we love proving people wrong," Austin said. "Everybody has bought into the one goal that we have in mind and that is winning a national championship." Baylor plays No. 2 seed Wisconsin on Thursday in Anaheim. In Baylors two previous trips to the Sweet 16, it fell one game short of the Final Four. McDermott carried the Bluejays back to the round of 32 for the third year in a row, and had done it in spectacular style, leading the nation in scoring with a sublime shooting touch and uncanny knack to slither his way through defenders for layups and putback baskets. McDermott spurned the chance to turn pro after last season, and this was the year the Bluejays and their senior-laden lineup were expected to drive Creighton farther into the NCAA tournament than any Bluejays team before them. But Baylors defence gave him nothing: neither space to shoot nor even chances for his teammates to pass him the ball. And for all the talk about Creightons maturity and bonding, Baylor made the Bluejays look small and slow. "This is the worst weve played all season, and it just stinks that its the last one.dddddddddddd But that doesnt take away from all my memories here. Its tough to go out this way," McDermott said. Baylor came out blazing from long range, knocking down five 3-pointers in the first 7 minutes. Kenny Chery of Montreal made three and when Heslip, who was 0 for 6 in Fridays win over Nebraska, swished his first against Creighton, he mockingly shook the fingers on both hands as he loped back down the court. "We were just expecting it to be a fight, to be honest," said Heslip, whos from Burlington, Ont. McDermott, meanwhile, struggled to find any kind of space inside or out against Baylors zone defence and badly misfired on his first attempt, a baseline shot that missed everything. This rout was just beginning. The Bears flexed their muscle early and often with a lineup built for the rigours of the Big 12. Austin is 7-foot-1 and he teamed with 6-10 forward Cory Jefferson in the frontcourt. When Creighton missed a shot, the typical result was three Bears under the basket with no Bluejays around. Baylors bench was just as intimidating. When reserve forward Rico Gathers pushed his 6-foot-8, 270-pound frame through the lane for a layup, two Creighton defenders were powerless to stop him. By the time Baylor had built a 20-point halftime lead, McDermott had taken only three shots, made one and had two fouls. "We knew we had them on their heels," Austin said. "We wanted to step on their throat." Even when Creighton got a spark — Ethan Wragge made two 3-pointers early in the second half — Baylor simply matched basket for basket, denying any hopes of a rally. Soon it was showtime as Baylors lead kept growing. Jefferson slammed down an alley-oop dunk for a 58-34 lead with just more than 12 minutes to play. Gathers added another rim-rattler a few minutes later, his broad shoulders soaring to the basket to punctuate the night. When McDermott left the game with 2:31 to play, he hugged his father, Creighton coach Greg McDermott, before retreating to the bench and burying his face in a towel. "Im not sure it was Baylor being that good or us being that bad," Greg McDermott said. "Over the course of the season youre going to have a few clunkers. We had one at the wrong time." ' ' '