Four potential starters Tuesday night during Monaco vs. PSG will be under the threat of a suspension in the return leg if they receive a yellow card in the first leg, including one Parisian.
AS Monaco and PSG will face each other twice within eight days and nothing guarantees that the lineups fielded in the first leg Tuesday night will be the same for the return match at Parc des Princes. Beyond the potential injured players or those who could, on the contrary, recover by then, no fewer than four players will be under suspension threat Tuesday night at Louis II if they receive a yellow card.
As a reminder, a player is automatically suspended for one match in the Champions League upon receiving his third yellow card in the competition, as well as after any subsequent odd-numbered caution (fifth, seventh, ninth, etc). Another important piece of information: all yellow cards expire after the Champions League quarterfinals.
For the moment, only one PSG player has picked up two yellow cards in the Champions League and will therefore have to be careful Tuesday night so as not to be deprived of the return leg. That is Portuguese left back Nuno Mendes, who has been playing with this threat hanging over him since receiving his second caution of the competition against Bayern Munich during the fourth round. Nuno Mendes managed to avoid a card in the following four matches against Tottenham, Bilbao, Sporting CP and Newcastle.
Three Parisian players have one yellow card to their name: Achraf Hakimi, Warren Zaire-Emery and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, as well as Luis Enrique. But none are therefore under threat of missing the return leg PSG vs. Monaco, except of course a red card Tuesday night. Sent off respectively against Tottenham and Leverkusen, Lucas Hernandez and Ilya Zabarnyi have not been cautioned since and their yellow card count is at 0.
On the Monaco side, Sebastien Pocognoli is deprived of 8 injured players and also has 3 important players uncertain: Maghnes Akliouche, Lamine Camara and Ansu Fati. Lamine Camara will start Tuesday night if he is ultimately fit to play, but will have to be careful as he has already collected two yellow cards this season in the Champions League.
Two other Monaco players are in this case and they are two potential starters who should begin against PSG in the first leg: central defender and former Parisian Thilo Kehrer, as well as Russian attacking midfielder Aleksandr Golovin, who was incidentally sent off in Ligue 1 against Nantes last Friday, but is available in the Champions League.
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