“We deserved to get at least a point from a draw”

Frustrated and annoyed by the opposite scenario against Benfica, the Monegasque technician was at a press conference to try to decipher the meeting.

What a frustrating result! Leading twice after goals from Eliesse Ben Seghir and Soungoutou Magassa and reduced to 10 before the hour mark, the Red and Whites gave in at the end of the game, losing 2-3 against Benfica at the Stadium Louis II. Present at a press conference, Adi Hütter tried to analyze the meeting. Excerpts.

Good evening coach. We imagine it's a frustrating defeat for you tonight.

I'm 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 it. We then found ourselves down to 10 after Wilfried's exclusion but we continued to perform well.

We should then have defended better in our area and we were punished on the two goals at the end of the match where we did not defend well as a team. It 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 match in the last minutes.

To what extent was Angel Di Maria dominant?

We managed to defend him well and then he showed that he was a fantastic player by showing all his qualities on crosses. Arthur Cabral is a powerful attacker, we failed to defend well on him in the aerial duel and we left too much space for Di Maria. This defeat is very hard, we are unhappy this evening.

Do you think that the action of the 41st minute changed the course of the match with these three yellow cards given to the Monegasques?

The yellow cards were given too quickly. In my opinion, perhaps the referee should have communicated more, even if we are guilty of protesting. I also received a card at the end of the game. But at this point in the match, he should have done better and not given so much.

Despite this result, what are the positive points that you take away from this match?

In my opinion, we had a fantastic first 15 minutes and we deserved to take the lead with an equally magnificent goal. But I'm angry about the way we played with the ball afterwards, making too many mistakes. With these errors, Benfica became better by obtaining several set pieces.

At 10 against 11, we subsequently achieved a superb performance and took the lead again thanks to Soungoutou Magassa. We are finally disappointed with the way we defended the centers. A defeat is always hard at the moment but we have to accept it because we are still in the race for qualification.

Did the experience make the difference for Benfica?

For me it doesn't matter what Benfica does. I am fully focused on AS Monaco. I know we have a lot of young players but it's the way we do things. There is a lot of talent in the Club with the Elite Group, the Youth League or in the team including Soungoutou Magassa who scored the second goal. I am satisfied with it, it is the path we want to follow. So that's not an excuse.