Preview: Hutter speaks ahead of AS Monaco’s big Champions League clash vs. Bologna
Adi Hutter spoke to the media ahead of his team’s eagerly awaited Champions League clash with Bologna, where all eyes will be on securing victory after AS Monaco’s two consecutive losses in Ligue 1.
Italian connections and AS Monaco
To kick things off, Hutter was asked of his thoughts on Monaco’s past Italian connections. “It’s true that quite a few Italian players have had a great history with the club, starting with Marco Simone, who was a player and then a coach in the Principality. I had the chance to face him once during my career in the Champions League, when I was playing in Austria and he was at AC Milan,” explained the Austrian.
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“I remember him as a really classy player and a humble person. Claudio Ranieri too, who was a great coach and had a successful spell. Many others have passed through AS Monaco, but I’ve only been here for a year, so I couldn’t name them all.”
Zakaria
Next on the agenda was Denis Zakaria, as Hutter confirmed his captain is set to miss again. Despite him being unavailable, the 54-year-old manager believes his team has what it takes to rise to the occasion without their midfield maestro. “It’s true that we’re going to miss him again, but it would be too easy for me to say that when he’s not here we can’t win. It doesn’t make sense to think that. I hope he’ll be back for the match against Strasbourg this weekend. Despite his absence, we have the players to play a good match tomorrow night against Bologna, who are a good team. We’ll see how we can compensate for Denis’ absence,” he insisted.
Bologna
Although Bologna have struggled to translate their performances into points, there’s no doubting they’re a talented, well-coached outfit under Vincenzo Italiano, something that Hutter touched on aptly.
“First of all, they are a very good team for me, who had a great season last year. This summer, a new experienced coach arrived, Vincenzo Italiano, who played in two Europa Conference League finals with Fiorentina. They have a well-defined playing philosophy, with strong scorers and great individuals like Riccardo Orsolini, Dan Ndoye and Remo Freuler in the midfield, who is a former Atalanta player,” commented the ASM boss.
“They beat Lecce this weekend, which gave them a lot of confidence. They are a dangerous team, who will certainly be a very good opponent, but I am convinced that we will also be a very tough one.”
He also added this on the collection of quality Swiss players on both teams, stating: “I knew Michel Aebischer well, whom I knew when I was a coach at Young Boys Bern, in addition to the two I mentioned earlier. On our side, we are lucky to have Philipp Kohn, Denis Zakaria and Breel Embolo, who are three Swiss internationals. Switzerland is a small country, but it has a lot of high-quality players, as is the case in Austria for example. Bologna is lucky to have three international level players from there, like us. And you can see that they are starting to have solid results in Europe.”
All eyes on victory
Following their disappointing losses vs. OGC Nice and Angers, matches they really should have won, as some sloppy moments cost them dearly, Hutter was keen to stress the importance of getting things back on track.
“We were very upset by our performance against Angers, which we cannot compare to our defeat against Nice, because the conditions were very different. When we were eleven against eleven in the derby, we were dominant. Whereas against SCO, we missed everything in the first half in my opinion, whether it was the pressing, the transitions or the reactions to losing the ball,” asserted the experienced tactician.
“We played really badly in this first act, which cost us the match, and it is something that we analysed with the players. Tomorrow is a new match in another competition, and we come to Bologna with seven points in three games, which we obviously want to strengthen. It was indeed a little different from usual, because we missed a lot of things. We showed a less good attitude than Angers, who played very well. It was too much for me this defeat, because once again the one in Nice can be explained with the red card, but there we did not have the face of the ambitious team that we are, with high objectives. We cannot accept our performance in the first half, and my players understood it. And I hope we will show it tomorrow.”
Crowd factor
Knowing the Bologna crowd will be fiercely cheering their team on, it was interesting to hear Hutter’s opinion on this, with him making a point of mentioning how vital the support of the many travelling ASM fans will be. “I expect a very good atmosphere against Bologna, especially after the win against Lecce, because they showed that they are back. It is also the fourth Champions League game for them, and they only have one point at the moment, so it is a crucial game. On our side, we will still be able to count on nearly 400 supporters in the enclosure to encourage us. They are always very numerous behind us and are very important in our success. So we hope that we can celebrate the victory together,” he said.
Go time
Having suffered a dip in results despite the performances remaining solid aside from some game-changing errors, Monaco will be looking to put on a polished display in their quest for all three points to propel them one step closer to progressing to the next stage of Europe’s elite club competition.