Champions League: AS Monaco cruelly eliminated following late drama against PSV

AS Monaco were disappointingly eliminated 3-2 by PSV Eindhoven in their third round Champions League qualifier, with Les Monegasques ultimately succumbing to an extra time goal from Luuk de Jong. They’ll now enter the Europa League just like they did last season when they fell to Shakhtar Donetsk.

The Match

After drawing the first leg 1-1 at home, Monaco started off positively at the Philips Stadion, as Philippe Clement’s side had three efforts on goal in the first five minutes to race out of the blocks.

Having controlled the opening 20 minutes and hardly given PSV a sniff, Joey Veerman found the back of the net, just like he did in the first leg, against the run of play to propel Ruud van Nistelrooy’s men into the lead on 21 minutes.

Responding well to this setback, Monaco regained a foothold in the contest almost immediately, but struggled to break down the disciplined PSV block. Just before the break, though, Wissam Ben Yedder had a gettable chance only for PSV keeper Walter Benitez to deny the little genius.

Coming out full of energy eager to get back into the match in the second half, Clement brought on the likes of Breel Embolo, Krepin Diatta and Caio Henrique, desperate to turn the tide. And Monaco did precisely that, with Guillermo Maripan levelling the score in the 58th minute following a corner before Ben Yedder brilliantly put his team ahead 12 minutes later.

Just as Monaco appeared destined for victory, the unthinkable happened, as Erick Gutierrez got PSV back level with an 89th minute header to send the tie into extra time.

Despite looking the more likely to progress and Embolo hitting the woodwork, it would ultimately be PSV who triumphed courtesy of De Jong’s 109th minute strike.

Clement’s Debrief

“I can’t ask for more from my players! I am very proud of them. This match turned on details that gave the opportunity to the opponent to score, but despite everything I saw good things,” Clemented explained after the crushing loss.

“This team is growing month by month. Today there were very good things that we did with the ball but also defensively. We were better than PSV in both legs. Tonight, despite the stadium being full, we didn’t suffer much and we pushed until the last second to score but luck in the end was not there.

“Now I see the team as real winners! It’s easier when you win to have that mentality, but the big winners are the players who have the mentality to bounce back from disappointment. We have to take that as an additional motivation to go forward.”

By the numbers

Even though the outcome didn’t favour Monaco, the fact they heavily outshone PSV in terms of expected goals (3.30 to 1.14), shots (30 to 11), shots inside the box (18 to 8), passes in the opposition half (272 to 164) and corners (12 to 4) demonstrated their quality display. 

Up next

The games keep coming thick and fast for Monaco, as they face a hugely challenging clash with Rennes on the weekend, where they’ll be looking to instantly return to the winners list and put this result behind them.

“We gave a lot physically, and we won’t have much time to recover before facing Rennes. But I want to see a good mentality in the coming days. I will select the players for Saturday from what I see in training. I want players who are already passionate about this game. Tonight was our first defeat in thirteen games, we must remember that! We have to keep doing what we know how to do. Thirteen matches unbeaten is not luck,” insisted the Monaco manager.