PARIS — Radamel Falcao struck twice as Monaco saw off Montpellier 2-0 on Wednesday to set up a French League Cup final against Paris Saint-Germain. Falcao put the hosts ahead in the 15th minute at the Stade Louis II, before Monaco were denied a penalty by the video assistant referee system. The Colombian doubled the lead before the half-hour mark, and although Rony Lopes had a second-period strike ruled out by video technology for offside, Leonardo Jardim's men eased to victory to book a final date with PSG on March 31. The reigning Ligue 1 champions will be looking for a measure of revenge after being thrashed 4-1 by PSG in last year's final. He (Falcao) hadn't scored in three games but everyone knows he's a big player and all players know there are times when they don't score, said Monaco coach Jardim. Now we have time to think about the final, we will prepare better for the final than last season. The hosts started brightly, with Andrea Raggi seeing a shot well saved by Montpellier goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte, but they didn't have to wait long to take the lead. Full-back Djibril Sidibe burst his way through before laying the ball off for captain Falcao to sweep home. Monaco thought they had been awarded a penalty just seconds later when Stevan Jovetic was brought down by Lecomte, but a VAR review showed that the keeper had played the ball before taking down the Montenegrin international. Montpellier, who were thrashed 4-0 by PSG at the weekend, continued to struggle and Monaco doubled their lead in the 29th minute. Fabinho unlocked the away defense with a clever pass, before Lopes broke free and crossed for Falcao to tap in his 22nd goal of the season in all competitions. Lopes thought he had added further gloss to the scoreline with 22 minutes to play, but another referral to the VAR showed that Falcao was narrowly offside before laying the ball back to the Portuguese midfielder. PSG continued their bid for a fifth straight League Cup title by edging to a 3-2 win at Rennes in the first semifinal on Tuesday, as they held off a spirited fightback from the hosts after Kylian Mbappe was sent off on a VAR decision. Calhanoglu blunder as Lazio hold Milan in Cup Hakan Calhanoglu missed an open goal as Lazio held AC Milan 0-0 in the Italian Cup semifinal, first leg in the San Siro on Wednesday, leaving all to play for in in Rome next month. The winner will play either Juventus or Atalanta with Massimiliano Allegri's side winning 1-0 in Bergamo on Tuesday night to keep on track for a fourth straight Cup crown. But Gennaro Gattuso's home side failed to get a fourth consecutive win on the trot against the battling Romans who had fallen 2-1 to Milan in the San Siro last Sunday. The best chance of the night came deep into the game when Calhanoglu fired over the bar on front of an empty goal after 75 minutes. It's part of the game, but it's important to be there and in the right place, at the end of the game he was in a terrible state and it seemed like the end of the world, said Gattuso of the Turkish midfielder. Serie A top scorer Ciro Immobile returned from injury but also missed several chances to break the stalemate notably a header cleared by Gianluigi Donnarumma after 62 minutes. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic also tested goalkeeper Donnarumma, before substitute Patrick Cutrone's header was cleared by Thomas Strakosha only for Calhanoglu to send the rebound over an open goal. We were lucky too, Donnarumma pulled off a miracle on Immobile — that's football, mistakes are there, added Gattuso. It was important not to concede a goal, a goal that is worth double away from home, we were good and in the first half it went well. Meanwhile, Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi revealed Cutrone had approached him after the game to apologize after scoring a controversial goal on Sunday with his arm. The second leg will take place at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on Feb. 28. Lazio have reached the final in three of the past five years, and were beaten in 2015 and 2017 by Juventus, who also beat Milan in 2016. Leganes punish Rico error as Cup semi tie ends all square A goalkeeping howler from Sevilla’s Sergio Rico allowed King’s Cup surprise packages Leganes to secure a 1-1 home draw in their semifinal first leg on Wednesday. Sevilla dominated and took a deserved lead after 20 minutes through Luis Muriel’s angled finish, but shortly after halftime Rico failed to connect as he attempted to punch a high ball from under his own crossbar and Dimitrios Siovas nodded in. Having created history with a first victory away to Real Madrid in the quarters, this was a maiden semifinal appearance for Asier Garitano’s Leganes side, who only earned promotion to La Liga for the first time last season. They were facing a seasoned Sevilla outfit playing in their 12th cup semifinal across all competitions over the past 12 seasons. It appeared Leganes’s lack of experience may get the better of them as the visitors threatened to overwhelm them and goalkeeper Nereo Champagne kept his side in contention with a series of saves before Muriel opened the scoring. After Leganes had equalized Sevilla, who knocked out Atletico Madrid in the quarterfinals, pushed on for a winner but Leganes held firm to the delight of a sold-out Butarque stadium. Holders Barcelona host Valencia in the other semi on Thursday, with Marcelino’s team looking to avenge an 8-1 aggregate defeat by the Catalans at this stage of the competition in 2016. — AFP