Forced into a draw against Lille (0-0), the Monegasques find themselves under threat from Paris SG who will host Strasbourg on Saturday.
Monaco, reduced to ten at the hour mark, was unable to get rid of a very defensive Lille (0-0), Friday evening at the opening of the 8th day of L1, and thus saw its first place threatened by Paris Saint-Germain, who will host Strasbourg on Sunday.
If this draw suits Lille more, which is provisionally placed in 4th place with the same number of points as Marseille and Reims as Monaco, still leader with 20 points but only three ahead of Paris, Adi Hütter cannot blame the lack commitment of his men.
At 10 against 11 for more than 30 minutes, they continued to try to force the Lille safe until the end, like this counter from Maghnès Akliouche, who served Denis Zakaria. It took an excellent Lucas Chevalier to deflect for a corner (90th+1). Lille, for its part, has prepared well for its trip to Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, against Atletico.
If the return in goal of Radoslaw Majecki was not felt as Lille was unproductive, the absence of Folarin Balogun was clearly felt. Monaco failed to score. His attackers were clumsy, like Breel Embolo (83rd). Certainly, the Swiss was offside, but two meters from the cages, he managed to catch Akliouche’s offering over the top.
The recovery after an international break is always complicated for the most exclusive clubs, major suppliers of the national teams. This is obviously the case for Monaco, where nearly fifteen potential starters were selected over the last two weeks.
This lack of reference points was noticed in the last gestures, the finest to be made, of a team deliberately turned towards the offensive.
However, Monaco was dominant throughout the meeting. The Principality team’s good first quarter of an hour was even torture for Lille. Suffering from each push from Takumi Minamino (2nd) or Eliesse Ben Seghir (half-volley over, 5th, and free kick obtained, 11th), Bruno Genesio’s men nevertheless held on.
Monaco pushes to 10
Even if, in the absence of their captain Benjamin André, it was impossible for them to come out with a clean ball, as the pressing from Aleksandr Golovin and his team was intense, they waited for better moments in the match.
And it took a four-minute stoppage following the injury of Mitchel Bakker, replaced by Gabriel Gudmunsson (30th), for the Northerners, after numerous discussions, to manage to loosen the Monegasque grip.
Only for a moment, because quickly, they repositioned themselves in a low block, in front of Lucas Chevalier’s cage. Attentive but ultimately little used in the first period, the northern goalkeeper saw Wilfried Singo’s header go wide (21st), as did Jordan Teze’s attempt on the right side (38th).
After the break, Monaco continued to push against a very unambitious Lille team. But once again, Ben Seghir’s header (56th) and Minamino (58th) were not effective.
While Monaco dominated, Monegasque Teze made a mistake. By trying to recover too quickly, he made a too dangerous move on Gudmundsson (61st). However, despite his logical exclusion, Hütter responded, bringing in Embolo, Diatta, clumsy (72nd), then Akliouche, very interesting. That wasn’t enough. And for the first time this season, Monaco did not score. We’ll have to know how to do it on Tuesday when we host Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League…
