With a double in the last twenty minutes, Eliesse Ben Seghir gave Monaco victory against Strasbourg (3-1) on Saturday at the Stade de la Meinau, relaunching his club in Ligue 1 on the eleventh day.
This success allows ASM (23 points) to climb to second place, overtaking Marseille (20 points), which fell on Friday against Auxerre (3-1) at the opening of this championship weekend.
Conversely, Strasbourg remains tenth (13 points), which corresponds to its uneven start to the season.
After three matches without success, the Rock players are relaunching, undoubtedly taking advantage of the momentum accumulated in the Champions League, where they won again this week, in Bologna (1-0).
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But in recent weeks, they had cultivated a frustrating duality by being disappointing in Ligue 1 – draw at Lille (0-0), before a defeat at Nice (2-1) then another against Angers (1-0) – but very good in C1, where they are third (10 points) in the league phase.
Their coach Adi Hütter had also asked his players to “maintain the level shown in Bologna” ahead of the match.
“Sometimes, unlike the Champions League, our attention is less sustained in Ligue 1,” he already underlined. However, every week is a real test for us. We have to give everything. »
During three quarters of the match, the syndrome seemed profound. The Monegasques lacked commitment and madness in attack at the Stade de la Meinau, especially in the first half.
This is how they were led 1-0 at half-time after a goal from Guéla Doué, with a powerful low shot from a very tight angle, taking advantage of the lack of guilty coverage from Radoslaw Majecki ( 29th).
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Monaco, however, had two clear chances to score through Breel Embolo, but the Swiss, initially ideally launched in depth, lost his duel with Djordje Petrovic (18th), before sending a disappointing strike while he was in the heart of the Alsatian surface (40th).
Adi Hütter therefore removed his striker in favor of George Ilenikhena at half-time.
But this choice did not bring his players out of apathy. Ben Seghir did it, scoring a saving double, first with a penalty after a hand from Diego Moreira on his line (79th), then with a recovery from a cross at the end of a rapid attack (89th).
In the process, Ilenikhena recovered the ball from the feet of the guilty Abakar Sylla, before deceiving Petrovic to end the suspense.
The Strasbourg residents, who wanted to repeat the same move as against Marseille (1-0) at the end of September on this same pitch, will regret the lack of skill of Dilane Bakwa at the end of the first period, who should have doubled the score, but completely missed his shot in a face-to-face with Radoslaw Majecki (45th).
The Alsatian club finally collapsed in twenty minutes, partly because of Ben Seghir’s double, which revived Monaco.
Challenge (with AFP)
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