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Ligue 1 round-up: PSG miss the chance to catch Lyon after draw at Monaco

Jeremy Toulalan fights for the ball with PSG's Jean-Christophe Bahebeck during the French L1 football match Monaco (ASM) vs Paris Saint-Germain
Image: Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco were deadlocked at the Stade Louis II.

Paris Saint-Germain fluffed their chance to go top of Ligue 1 with a frustrating 0-0 draw at Monaco on Sunday.

Leaders Lyon suffered their first defeat in 12 matches on Saturday, going down 2-1 at Lille to leave second-placed PSG trailing by just two points with a game in hand.

But the Parisians failed to capitalise, as Monaco went an impressive 10th game without conceding in their last 11 league matches.

"We largely played well but in football you have to turn domination into goals," said PSG coach Laurent Blanc. "Scoring goals is the hardest thing in football and perhaps some of our players don't do it enough.

"We had five or six chances tonight but we didn't manage to get one on target or to score one. We'll see at the end of the season if this will cost us. Given how we played, one point is not enough."

Ezequiel Lavezzi was gifted a prime opportunity to open the scoring in the 25th minute after Monaco captain Jeremy Toulalan drifted in defence, but the Argentine could only poke the ball wide.

With the Monaco defenders standing off, Lavezzi fired another shot just wide of Subasic's left post after some slick passing opened up the left wing on the counter-attack.  

Monaco's first real chance of the game came in the 35th minute when Ferreira Carrasco held off PSG skipper Thiago Silva down the left, managed to turn and cross to Jao Moutinho, whose underhit first-time shot fell safely into Salvatore Sirigu's hands.

Blanc was left hitting his dugout in frustration on the stroke of half-time as Cavani blasted high to wrap up a first half that showed much promise but no reward for the capital side.

A toothless Monaco looked a different side from the one who put Arsenal to the sword in the Champions League last week.

Two half-hearted attacks were easily dealt with by PSG as the flow of the game meandered to a disappointing conclusion.

The home side, however, held out to frustrate a PSG side that failed to capitalise after dominating much of the match.

Earlier on Sunday, Nice found the back of the net for the first time in five games but could not keep their lead in a 2-1 defeat against Montpellier.

And a Yacine Bammou strike offered Nantes their first win of 2015 when they beat Guingamp 1-0 in a hard-fought Brittany derby.

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