Monaco and its young prodigy, Maghnes Akliouche, irresistible at club and with the Bleuets, welcome Wednesday (9 p.m.) during the 5th day of the Champions League, Benfica Lisbon with the firm intention of maintaining the good dynamic. A victory over the Lusitanians and Monaco, 6th in the standings with 10 points, would certainly see the play-offs and could project themselves towards direct qualification for the final phase, remaining among the 8th best teams in the League phase.
Ensuring its place as play-off, the minimum objective that the club has set for itself, from Wednesday, would be all the more welcome as the coming calendar promises to be more difficult. The Monegasques will thus be opposed to three very high-class opponents, with two perilous trips, first to London to challenge Arsenalthen to Milan to face theInter during the last day, interspersed with the reception ofAston Villatenor of the Premier League.
Win against Benfica and its brilliant Argentine veteran Angel Of Maryalready “a little under pressure”, in the competition, according to the red and white coach Adi Hütter would therefore be ideal.
The film of the meeting:
39e – Singo is in his match. Like Kehrer, the Ivorian is diligent and does not let go of his direct opponent in order to nip a Lisbon offensive in the bud.
38th – Receiving a corner, Otamendi gains the upper hand in the air. His header flirts with the left post while Majecki misses his exit. Monaco will be able to breathe.
37th – Majecki saves his people! On a poorly felt back pass from Ben Seghir, Di Maria was the quickest to recover the ball. Then alone against Majecki, the 2022 world champion crosses his shot and forces a high-class save from the Pole.
36e – At long distance, Akliouche takes his chance directly. The leather ends its course to the right of the cage.
35e – Otamendi-Ben Seghir clash 30 meters from the Benfica cage. The Argentinian is penalized and offers an interesting free kick to ASM.
33e – The corner kick is well defended by the Monegasques. Akliouche demonstrates his technique to allow Singo to clear far in front.
32nd – The huge scare! At 20 meters, Carreras places a shot deflected by Singo which almost deceives Majecki. Corner.
30e – During the previous action, Carreras let his crampons drag on Camara’s calf. This did not escape the referee, who gave him the yellow card.
29e – All alone by cutting towards the axis, Ben Seghir opens up a slight striking angle. He grabs it, without adjusting the sights.
28e – Rough intervention by Otamendi on Embolo near the halfway line. Surprisingly, the referee is not overly harsh.
26e – Kehrer again. He is on the right trajectory when returning a ball from Carreras to Pavlidis.
24th – As is often the case, Camara takes care of it. When it falls, Trubin wards off the danger with his fists.
23e – On the other side, Ben Seghir plays Bah before the Dane comes to block his cross. Corner.
22e – Kehrer maintains his support against Pavlidis. The German defends perfectly in his area, even obtaining the return from six meters.
20e – In any case, the. visitors are doing better. They put their foot on the ball and recover it very high as soon as they lose it.
18e – Di Maria, at the baton, searches for Otamendi. At the height of the second post, the latter commits a fault.
17e – The Portuguese team reacts. Discreet so far, Bah gets a corner.
16e – The Lisbon residents try to react immediately. Things heat up on Majecki’s cage but an offside is finally signaled against Pavlidis.
14e – This goal is the first scored by Eliesse Ben Seghir in the Champions League.
13th – Eliesse Ben Seghir opens the door!!! The perfect Monegasque collective combination allows Vanderson to inherit the leather on the right of the field. Arriving at the edge of the truth zone, he places a powerful shot that Trubin pushes back into Golovin’s feet. Then glued to the goal line, the Russian passes to Ben Seghir who just has to finish the job at point blank range. 1 goal to 0 in favor of ASM.
11e – It’s Zakaria’s turn to shine. Taking advantage of Akliouche’s fixation on the right of the area, the Swiss catapults a shot on target which Trubin negotiates without worry.
10th – The game is temporarily interrupted because Vanderson has lost his right shoe. This does not last, the locals resume their march forward.
9th – It’s right on target for Ben Seghir! Taking advantage of a lucky deflection on a pass from Akliouche, Ben Seghir appears in front of Trubin very close to the six meters. Faced with the exit of the Ukrainian goalkeeper, the Moroccan failed to adjust his sights.
8e – However, it was Di Maria who fired the first shot of the evening. His axial and floating attempt slips into Majecki’s gloves.
6e – The dominance is clearly Red and White so far. Despite everything, the waves were pushed back by the Portuguese.
5e – Florentino Luis lets his foot drag on Breel Embolo in the wake of a pass. He receives a yellow card… severe.
4e – Served behind by Camara, Akliouche sees his center being pushed back.
3e – The Monegasques are ambitious in these first moments. Caio Henrique overflows on the right and gets a corner.
1st – Let’s go between Monaco and Benfica!
20h57 – The 22 starters as well as the refereeing team are on the pitch. The start of the game is imminent.
20h53 – Only a few minutes left before the kick-off which will be given by Rade Obrenovič.
20h50 – Opposite, the tireless Angel Di Maria will occupy the right side of the attack. With his hat-trick in the Portuguese Cup last weekend, he is in good form, especially since he scored twice in the Porto match before the break.
20h48 – Severely lacking in confidence this season, Breel Embolo is lined up from the start this Wednesday evening. Author of a small goal in 10 Ligue 1 appearances since August, he also scored once in the UCL (4 matches). Injured in the shoulder since October 5, Folarin Balogun returns to the bench.
20h45 – Benfica’s bench of representatives: Amdouni, Bajrami, Barreiro, Cabral, Felix, Gomes (g.), Kaboré, Parente, Rollheiser, Schjelderup, Silva, Soares (g.)
20h41 – Benfica team composition: Trubin (g.) – Bah, Otamendi (c.), Araujo, Carreras – Florentino, Aursnes – Di Maria, Kokcu, Akturkoglu – Pavlidis
20h38 – The banks of remplaçants of Monaco: Balogun, Ilenikhena, Kohn (g.), Lienard (g.), Magassa, Matazo, Mawissa, Minamino, Ouattara, Salisu, Teze, Tincres
20h35 – The team composition of Monaco: Majecki (g.) – Vanderson, Singo, Kehrer, Caio Henrique – Camara, Zakaria (c.) – Akliouche, Golovin, Ben Seghir – Embolo
20h30 – Monaco and Benfica meet for the third time in the Champions League, after their double confrontation in the 2014/15 group stage during which ASM failed to score (1 draw, 1 defeat).
20h27 – Benfica has 49 victories in the Champions League and could become the second Portuguese team to reach 50 victories after Porto (96).
20h23 – Benfica has not won an away match against a French opponent in C1 (3 draws, 5 defeats). The SLB no longer has any trips without ever winning against German teams only (12).
20h20 – For its part, Benfica is in the top 24 of the league stage. 22nd (6 pts), the Portuguese won against Red Star Belgrade (1-2) then against Atlético Madrid (4-0) before falling to Feyenoord (1-3) and Bayern (1-0). Beaters of Porto (4-1) in the league before the break, the Lisbon side also gained confidence in the Portuguese Cup by crushing Estrela (7-0).
20h17 – Monaco have won 3 of their first 4 matches of a season in major European competition for the first time since 2005/06. The Monegasques have only won 4 of their first 5 matches in the same UCL campaign once, in 1997/98.
20h13 – Monaco have won their 2 home matches in the Champions League this season, after losing each of the previous 7.
20h10 – On a good dynamic after having suffered two losses in Nice (2-1) and against Angers (0-1) during J9 and 10 of Ligue 1, ASM remains on three successes in a row. Indeed, after Bologna (1-2), the Rocher players also defeated Strasbourg (1-3) and Brest (3-2). Runners-up to PSG in the championship, they are 6th in the Champions League league phase (10 pts) and could even enter the top 3 if successful.
20h05 – After a victorious trip to Bologna (0-1), AS Monaco hosts Benfica at the Stade Louis-II. Kick-off will be at 9 p.m.
20:00 – Good evening and welcome to everyone.
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