Review

Champions League: Short-handed AS Monaco fall to Inter Milan

AS Monaco suffered a 3-0 defeat to Inter Milan at the San Siro in their final Champions League first phase clash, as Christian Mawissa’s early red card put an immediate halt to Les Monegasques’ hopes of victory.

Despite the loss, Monaco still crucially progressed to the play-offs in Europe’s elite competition under the eyes of President Dmitry Rybolovlev and roughly 1200 Monaco fans that made the trip to Italy.

Advertising

The Match

Heading into the match with aspirations of making the top eight to directly reach the Round of 16 with a win, their ambitions were quickly dashed when Denis Zakaria brought down Marcus Thuram to hand the home team an early penalty, which Lautaro Martinez smartly converted.

© AS Monaco

Things got even worse shortly after when Mawissa was sent off in the 12th minute following a poor challenge on Thuram that gave the referee little choice but to give him his marching orders.

The Nerazzurri showed no mercy on Les Monegasques by rapidly doubling their advantage through Martinez, who expertly bagged a second with a masterful strike.

Less than halfway through the first half, Adi Hutter brought on Caio Henrique for Maghnes Akliouche to tighten things up to try and ensure the situation didn’t become even more grim.

© AS Monaco

While Federico Dimarco came close to extending Inter’s lead, AS Monaco bravely battled on to reach the interval still just two behind.

Simone Inzaghi’s men came out swinging in the second stanza, as Thuram and Benjamin Pavard forced Radoslaw Majecki into a pair of tidy stops.

The Polish goalkeeper didn’t cover himself in glory in the passage that led to Inter’s third, however, for he parried Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s strike right into the path of Martinez. The Argentine forward duly capitalised to complete his hat-trick.

© AS Monaco

Monaco’s woes deepened when Jordan Teze had to be taken off injured late on, which meant ASM had to finish the game with nine players due to them already using all their allocated substitutions.

The result propels Inter straight into the final 16 while ASM head to the play-offs.

Hutter’s Debrief

“I wouldn’t say that this match was a nightmare. First of all, I would like to congratulate Inter Milan, who deserved their victory. Our start to the match was a bit of a nightmare and our game plan was completely different from the 12th minute after Christian Mawissa received a red card,” reflected the Austrian tactician.

© AS Monaco

“We expected to face a tough and solid team, and that was it. It was very hard to be competitive with a man down against a team like that. Regarding Jordan Teze, we will do an MRI, but it is a difficult injury to accept.”

Key Stats

By the numbers, the fact Inter held the ascendancy in terms of expected goals (3.44 to 0.25), total shots (20 to 4), shots on target (7 to 0), shots inside the box (15 to 2) and touches inside the box (47 to 2) further underlined what a tough night at the office it was for the short-handed Monaco.

© AS Monaco

UCL Quest Continues

Despite this encounter being one they’ll want to swiftly forget, there’s still been many positives to extract from their Champions League campaign so far, which notably has included a memorable triumph over Barcelona, that should give them the confidence and belief that they can take on anyone.

With Monaco set to face off with Paris Saint-Germain or Benfica in the play-offs, watching how they fare will be unmissable in their search to go as far as possible in the showpiece competition.

“Both teams are strong and used to European competitions. We know PSG very well, it won’t be the first time we’ve played them this season. We also lost 3-2 to Benfica, so we’ll see in the draw. However, I’m happy and proud that we’ve qualified for the play-offs,” Hutter explained.

© AS Monaco