Ligue 1: AS Monaco return to winning ways by overcoming Brest
AS Monaco returned to winning ways by reigning triumphant against Brest in a fiercely competitive clash, which Prince Albert II and the president Dmitri Rybolovlev watched together at the Stade Louis II.
The Match
Opting to go back to his preferred 3-4-2-1 for this colossal fixture against Brest, Adi Hutter notably deployed Folarin Balogun up front with Aleksandr Golovin and Maghnes Akliouche operating as dual 10s.
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Immediately stamping their mark on the contest, early efforts from Soungoutou Magassa and Denis Zakaria offered plenty of encouragement. But Brest then reacted smartly and thought they’d taken the lead shortly after through Jeremy Le Douaron only for the goal to be chalked off for a foul on Balogun earlier in the passage.
ASM then duly took the lead following a wonderfully taken corner from Golovin, who expertly found Zakaria to nod home his first goal for Les Monegasques.
Eager to build on their advantage, ASM thought they’d extended their lead courtesy of Balogun, but the goal was ruled out for offside.
Another key decision then came for Brest, as they appeared to have levelled the ledger when Lilian Brassier found the back of the net, but he too was signalled for offside.
With tensions rising and Brest getting more and more frustrated, especially after they had a penalty shout waved away, the second half was always going to be a pulsating affair.
And so it proved, with both teams enjoying some solid efforts to kick things off. It would be Monaco who capitalised next, however, as they doubled their ascendancy through Golovin’s smartly placed finish.
The drama then continued as both teams traded blows, before Brest hit the post twice and Brassier received a red card late on, in what was a compelling close to an entertaining match.
In the end, though, Hutter’s men ultimately did enough to prevail 2-0 to propel them into second in the Ligue 1 standings.
Hutter’s Debrief
“First of all, I’m happy that we won this match. Everyone saw that Brest had a good start to the season and a good performance this evening. We won 2-0 with a clean sheet. For me it was probably our worst game of the season at home, so I don’t think we can say much about it. But once again I remember the victory, and that remains the most important thing,” reflected the Austrian manager.
“Brest’s style of play is based on a lot of long balls, duels in the heart of the game. It was not easy for both teams in the first half, the game was stopped a lot by fouls, because we did not we don’t have many solutions. We tried to find some balls between the lines, but it wasn’t easy. It was complicated with the ball tonight, but I remember the result.
“We can’t say that we had 100% control of the situation, but in these kinds of matches, the difference can be made from a set-piece, which was the case with the first goal. It was 50-50, we could have lost too. We still scored a fantastic goal in the build-up to the second.”
Key Stats
By the numbers from this even clash that could’ve gone either way, the fact ASM held the edge for shots on target (6 to 1), but were second best in terms of total shots (15 to 12), expected goals (0.86 to 0.79), possession (56% to 44%), passes in the opposition half (154 to 136) and overall duels won (55 to 52) highlighted what a challenging night at the office they endured.
Le Havre on the Horizon
Having won four of their last five matches, up next for Monaco is an away day against Le Havre, where they’ll be doing everything in their power to secure all three points to enter the subsequent international break in fine style.