Despite conceding two late goals to lose 2-3 to Benfica, there were still plenty of positives to be extracted from AS Monaco’s latest Champions League outing, in a match where they played the last 30 minutes with 10 men.
The Match
Opting for his base 4-2-3-1 for this high-profile clash in front of nearly 14,000 spectators, Adi Hutter chose an exciting line-up to take on the high-flying Eagles, as Caio Henrique and Lamine Camara were notably handed starts.
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Getting off to a roaring start, Les Monegasques quickly put the visitors on the back foot by dominating the early exchanges.
They crucially made the most of this superiority by taking the lead inside 13 minutes through Eliesse Ben Seghir, who capped off a flowing move.
Benfica tried to reply instantly before ASM found their offensive verve again, as Ben Seghir and Maghnes Akliouche both launched efforts that went over the bar.
Radoslaw Majecki in goal then rose to the occasion to deny Angel Di Maria and Nicolas Otamendi to ensure Monaco had the edge at the interval.
The second stanza began in wild fashion, for Breel Embolo hit the post, Vangelis Pavlidis levelled for Benfica following Henrique’s error and both teams had a goal chalked off for offside all within 10 minutes of the restart.
Things frustratingly took a turn for Monaco when Wilfried Singo was sent off after receiving a second yellow near the hour-mark.
To their credit, though, Les Rouge et Blanc kept pushing and subsequently retook the lead courtesy of Soungoutou Magassa’s masterful strike.
Although they were doing a terrific job of holding firm and still posing a threat going forward while shorthanded, a pair of late goals from Arthur Cabral and Zeki Amdouni powered the away side to a dramatic victory.
Indeed, this cruel finish came as a real blow after all their hard work and heroics. But the team has every reason to be proud of their efforts, on a night where Monaco going a man down yet again proved costly.
Hutter’s Debrief
“I am obviously disappointed with the result because after a good start, where we deserved to lead, we made mistakes with the ball. We are guilty of that. We then found ourselves with 10 men after Wilfried was sent off, but we continued to perform well,” reflected the Austrian tactician.
“We should have defended better in our area and we were punished with the two goals at the end of the game, where we didn’t defend well as a team. That makes this result even more frustrating because we were leading 2-1. We deserved to get at least a draw, but Benfica changed the scenario of the game in the last minutes. A defeat is always hard at the time, but we have to accept it because we are still in the race for qualification.”
Key Stats
By the numbers, the fact Benfica held the ascendancy in terms of expected goals (3.04 to 1.69), total shots (18 to 11), shots on target (8 to 5), shots inside the box (13 to 6) and touches inside the box (35 to 29) while ASM were ahead in overalls duels won (51 to 48), interceptions (22 to 14), clearances (26 to 18) and tackles won (12 to 10) illustrated what a key difference-maker Singo’s expulsion was, as it forced ASM to give up plenty of offensive impetus to instead focus on defending.
OM Awaits
Having suffered their first loss in the UCL this crusade, getting back to winning ways will be on the cards when Monaco face off with Olympique de Marseille on Sunday, with this encounter set to be a hugely entertaining fixture to close out Matchday 13 in Ligue 1.
