Monaco’s bad patch continued on Friday, just before their return to the Champions League, as the princely club lost 2-1 against Montpellier, dead last in Ligue 1, after opening the scoring.
Mousa Al-Tamari was the man of the match for Montpellier with a double in the second half, allowing his team to achieve only their third victory of the season and rekindling a hope of survival which seemed hopeless before this meeting.
Captain Thilo Kehrer had given Monaco the lead just after the half-hour mark at the Stade de la Mosson, but Monaco’s alarming trend calls into question as they prepare to host Aston Villa next Tuesday.
They have not won one of their last four Ligue 1 matches and could fall off the podium, depending on the result of the evening’s other meeting between Lille and Nice, who are the two teams just below them in the ranking.
Adi Huetter’s team was eliminated from the Coupe de France on penalties by Reims last Tuesday and has only won two matches in the last eleven meetings in all competitions.
Currently, they sit 16th in the Champions League table, having lost their last two matches in Europe, and another defeat against Villa at the Stade Louis II would potentially knock them out of the group stage.
-They had threatened to escape with the match at the start and logically took the lead when Kehrer scored with a header from a corner taken near the post.
However, the turning point in the match came after an interruption of several minutes at the start of the second half, caused by Montpellier supporters who broadcast dance music from loudspeakers behind a stadium goal.
Al-Tamari took advantage of a short back pass from Kassoum Ouattara to equalize in the 55th minute, rounding the keeper to score their first goal of the season.
He then scored the winning goal for Montpellier eight minutes from time, stinging the ball between the legs of Radoslaw Majecki, well served by Arnaud Nordin.
Al-Tamari almost completed a hat-trick at the end as Montpellier held on to draw level with Le Havre at the bottom of the table and move to within four points of remaining, before the other matches of the weekend.
