Paris St-Germain have been the dominant power in French football for a number of years, and their supremacy hasn’t just been confined to Ligue 1, which they had won in four out of the five previous years prior to the 2017-18 season. The Paris giants have also dominated the country’s two main Cup competitions: the Coupe de France, and the Coupe de le Ligue.
That stranglehold on French football silverware wasn’t loosened in the 2017-18 season as PSG completed a clean sweep of all the major honours in domestic football; their third in four seasons. And, with the final played in March, the Coup de le Ligue once again provided PSG with their first opportunity of the season to pick up another set of winners medals.
Having won the competition for the previous four consecutive seasons, it was no surprise that PSG went into the 2017-18 edition as overwhelming favourites, according to the implied probabilities on the Bigbetbookmakers.com site, a long way clear of second favourites Monaco, who were the only other team to be generally available at a single figure price with sportsbooks.
But unlike the 2016-17 tournament in which PSG were rarely troubled en route to the final, where they handed out a 4-1 drubbing to Monaco, the 2017-18 competition threw up a tougher path for the reigning champions. They faced away fixtures in the Fourth Round, Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals. Strasbourg were beaten 4-2 in the last eight, and there was a straightforward win over Ligue 1 newcomers Amiens in the quarter-finals, but they were given a fright in the Semi-Final.
Played in Rennes, the game saw PSG leading 3-0 at the hour mark and seemingly coasting towards the final. But on 85 minutes, Diafra Sakho pulled one back for Rennes and two minutes into injury time, Sanjin Prcic scored a second, to set up a thrilling finish. PSG had done enough, however, and they reached their fifth consecutive final, where they would once again take on Monaco.
Rennes had also been involved in the Coupe de le Ligue’s most dramatic game, at the quarter-final stage. Taking on Toulouse, who had already been involved in a six-goal thriller in the Third Round, Rennes opened the scoring through a Steeve Yago own goal, and Benjamin Bourigeaud got their second just before half time. But goals from Issiaga Sylla and Yaya Sanogo kept Toulouse in touch until, with the game heading for extra time, Adrien Hunou scored twice in six minutes to seal the win.
Astonishingly, Leonardo Jardim’s side had been the only team other than PSG to win a domestic trophy in the previous three seasons, and they reached the 2017-18 final having beaten Caen, Nice and Montpellier along the way, but once again they had to cede supremacy to PSG in the final. Uruguayan star Edinson Cavani opened the scoring after just 8 minutes at the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux and Angel Di Maria added a second on 21 minutes. With Monaco running out of ideas late in the game, Cavani added a third from the penalty spot and the trophy belonged to PSG again.
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