PARIS — Radamel Falcao is making Monaco fans forget Kylian Mbappe’s departure from the French champion.
The Colombian striker added two more goals to his impressive tally this season as Monaco heaped more misery on struggling Lille with a 4-0 win at the northern club in the French league Friday.
After scoring nine in Monaco’s opening six matches for the most prolific start to a season by any player in the league in 40 years, Falcao took his total to 11 with the brace.
He has more goals than any other striker in the top five European leagues so far this season.
Despite Mbappe’s move to rival Paris Saint-Germain during the summer, Monaco has retained its attacking verve, with 21 goals in seven matches.
Stevan Jovetic, who joined from Inter Milan, scored his first goal for the Riviera team to open the scoring. Rachid Ghezzal doubled the visitors’ lead from Almamy Toure’s cross at the half hour mark, then Falcao made it three from the rebound after Rony Lopes’s effort was thwarted by goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
Falcao sealed Monaco’s win from the spot after Jorge was brought down by Rominigue Kouame in the box.
The win moved the defending champion level on points with PSG. Lille stayed 17th. Mario Balotelli scored his fourth goal this season from the spot and Ismael Traore added an own goal as Nice erased a two-goal deficit to draw with Angers 2-2 in the French league Friday.
Ulreich blunder
costs sloppy Bayern
A blunder by stand-in goalkeeper Sven Ulreich contributed to Bayern Munich squandering the chance to go top of the Bundesliga Friday as they threw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 against Wolfsburg.
Goals from Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben had given Bayern a commanding lead at half-time, but Ulreich’s error and a late equalizer from Daniel Didavi saw Wolfsburg rescue an unlikely point in Munich.
Since losing to Hoffenheim a fortnight ago, Carlo Ancelotti’s team had won three games in a row coming into Friday’s fixture, but a lackluster performance underlined their early season problems.
It was the first time in six years that Bayern had failed to win after holding a 2-0 lead. — Agencies
