Lorient beat Monaco to begin round two of Ligue 1 in shadow of Messi mania
Lorient beat Monaco 1-0 to kick off the second round of games in Ligue 1 on Friday night following five frenzied days of hysteria and hyperbole accompanying the arrival of Lionel Messi from Barcelona.
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The 34-year-old Argentine on Tuesday signed a two-year deal at Paris Saint-Germain expected to bring him around 70 million euros in wages.
The six-time winner of the Ballon d’Or will add his goals and guile to a PSG forward line that includes nearly 500 million euros worth of talent in the shape of the Brazil star Neymar, France’s World Cup winner Kylian Mbappé and Argentina international Angel Di Maria.
With such riches, the PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino will be expected to recapture the Ligue 1 crown from Lille and steer the side to the Champions League title.
Expectation
On Tuesday night in the qualifying rounds for this season’s tournament, Monaco saw off Sparta Prague 3-1 to advance 5-1 on aggregate to the play-off round where they will take on Shakhtar Donetsk over two legs.
Success against the Ukrainians will furnish them with a berth in the group stages along with Lille, PSG, Bayern Munich and last season's winners Chelsea.
Lorient seek the more modest ambition of survival.
The Bretons finished last season in 16th - two points off the relegation zone following a surge of form in which they took 10 points from their last five games.
Christophe Pelissier’s men and Niko Kovac’s Monaco side both started their 2021/2022 campaigns with 1-1 draws against Saint-Etienne and Nantes respectively.
Test
But Pelissier's side made it four points from six thanks to Terem Moffi's successfully converted penalty on the half-hour mark.
"It was a tough 90 minutes," said Pelissier after the match. "I told them that it would be difficult and it was. But they were ready to fight and fight for each other and they've delivered a wonderful performance against a technically gifted side.
"But we caused them problems, got our goal and defended it together."
PSG, who won their opening game at Troyes 2-1, entertain Strasbourg at the Parc des Princes on Saturday night.
Messi has not played since leading Argentina to the Copa America in July and is unlikely to be in Pochettino’s line-up for the fixture.
However, he is scheduled to go out onto the field to greet fans at the Parc des Princes before the match.
Before such pyrotechnics, the champions Lille, who came back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 at Metz, take on Nice who are led by Christophe Galtier - the man who led them to the title last season.
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