Zapping Foot National Interview – The underside of amateur football, with Romain Molina
A stifling end to the match. This Friday evening, Montpellier actually hosted AS Monaco in the opening match of the 19th day of Ligue 1. A meeting which saw the red lantern of the championship overthrow the third in the second half. The MHSC actually won by a score of two goals to one but remained last.
A first period dominated by Monaco
From the start of the match the Rocher players showed themselves to be the most energetic. They press hard and recover very high balls. Eliesse Ben Seghir is the most dangerous but fails to finish three times (2′, 11′, 17′), including two chances saved by Benjamin Lecomte, the local goalkeeper. If Monaco dominates the first 20 minutes, the players come out of their lair and create two big opportunities. Al-Tamari opens his foot too much and doesn’t target his shot (25′). Tavernier goes to find the gloves of Majecki, Monegasque goalkeeper (27′). The players from the principality moved forward and opened the scoring from a corner, the 8th of the half, with a header from Thilo Kehrer at the near post (32′). The Monegasques combined well but failed to double the lead, like Akliouche who found Lecomte’s foot, his 7th save of the half. 0-1 at the break, the Montpellier team suffered but remained in the match.
-Al-Tamari changes everything in a second
Heckled by its supporters, Montpellier will start to get its head above water as soon as it returns from the locker room. In the 54th minute of play, Al-Tamari actually anticipated a big mistake from Ouattara to step in front of Majecki, eliminate the Monegasque goalkeeper and reset the counters. Everything now has to be done again for the men of Adi Hütter, mad with rage. The Principality club will quickly get their foot back on the ball, and create several clear opportunities, without however managing to regain the lead. In the 83rd minute of play, the Mosson stadium will explode… again thanks to his Jordanian genius. Al-Tamari is found in the opponent’s penalty area before getting back on his left foot and finding the near post. What a sequence and what a turnaround! Montpellier gets its head above water but remains last… and pushes Monaco into a crisis.
To summarize
A stifling end to the match. This Friday evening, Montpellier actually hosted AS Monaco in the opening match of the 19th day of Ligue 1. A meeting which saw the red lantern of the championship overthrow the third in the second half. The MHSC actually won by a score of two goals to one but remained last.
