Football: Monaco extend unbeaten run with draw against Nantes

Takumi Minamino and Myron Boadu celebrate Monaco's equaliser against Nantes.

AS Monaco remain unbeaten this season after an entertaining 3-3 draw against FC Nantes on Friday. 

Adi Hütter’s side have established themselves as the most exciting side in Ligue 1. In just three games, Les Monégasques have scored 10 goals, three of which came in a hard-fought draw at La Beaujoire on Friday.

Pierre Aristouy’s side went into the fixture looking for their first point of the season, and they got off to the perfect start. Mostafa Mohamed converted from the spot after Denis Zakaria fouled inside the box.

An incredible 24 hours for Jean-Charles Castelletto

Things would get worse for Monaco before they’d get better. Jean-Charles Castelletto leapt highest at a corner and doubled Nantes’ lead. That goal rounded off an incredible 24 hours for the Cameroonian international, who had initially refused to compete in the match in order to force his move away from Les Canaris. 

However, despite the scoreline, Hütter’s side were dominant, and just lacked the finishing touch. Takumi Minamino got his third goal in two games to halve the deficit before the break, however, Nantes restored their two-goal margin early in the second half.

Monaco 27 shots to Nantes’ 3

Mohamed got a second to leave Monaco with a mountain to climb, but climb it they did. Wissam Ben Yedder scored after a goalmouth scramble, and Nantes then crumbled under pressure in the closing stages.

As Aristouy’s side dropped deeper, the opportunities came thick and fast, and it was only a matter of time before Monaco capitalised. It was Myron Boadu who levelled the scores, tucking home after Youssouf Fofana’s header hit the bar.

“We showed character.”

Monaco pushed for a winner, but it ended all square. It was a question of efficiency in front of goal with Nantes scoring all three of their shots on goal, Monaco, however, had an incredible 27 shots, but could only convert a fraction.

However, given the game state, this will be considered one point one, not two lost for Hütter. “According to the stats, I think we deserved to win because we had 27 shots and 10 on target. I am at the same time disappointed, but happy with my team’s reaction because we showed character to come back,” said the Austrian coach.

Monaco next face RC Lens at the Stade Louis II on Saturday 2nd September. Last season’s second-placed side will prove a big test and will show us how good this entertaining Monaco side really are.

 

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Photo source: AS Monaco

Pablo Picasso at the Palais Princier de Monaco

The upcoming Pablo Picasso and Antiquity exhibit at the Palace Princier de Monaco explores the artist’s enduring love affair with the classical world.   

The complicated and charged world of Pablo Picasso often used themes from the classical world spun into the modern, and the new Pablo Picasso and Antiquity exhibit at the Palace Princier de Monaco takes a look at pieces that were inspired by the Greeks and Romans of old yet produced by the artist in his post-war period. 

FIRST ENCOUNTERS  

In 1917, Picasso braved the turbulence of World War I and visited a number of archaeological sites in Rome, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Naples, and found the perception of classical art he was fed as a student was far from the reality.   

The pieces he saw were, though full of colour, eroded and often not well looked after. He took what he witnessed in these now run-down urban centres and transformed his thinking about classicism from one of never-ending perfection to one of change marred by time, social upheaval and politics.   

From this point on, Picasso referenced Greco-Roman art in several of his works, incorporating mythological subjects as well as a more abstract homage, with the use of isolated limbs and rough surfaces, such as those he had seen at archaeological sites.   

THE EXHIBITION  

Pablo Picasso and Antiquity takes an even closer look at the artist’s relationship to classicism, offering “a stage for Picasso’s insights into the survival, legibility and transformability of ancient artifacts in spite of historical disruption and material distress”.   

Ruin and decline butted up against renewal and perseverance are take-away themes from the exhibit, which is filled with pieces created from the post-war period through to the 1950s.   

“It illuminates the radical ways in which the artist reimagined the heritage of the Greco-Roman world through subjects, style and materials as he contradicted the dogmatism and idealism of the academic tradition,” explain the organisers via a press release.   

Pieces for the event, which will be held inside the Prince’s Palace alongside the newly restored 16th century frescoes, are on loan from the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (FABA), complemented by a single piece coming from the Nahmad Collection. It is being curated by Francesca Ferrari, with the design by Cécile Degos.  

Pablo Picasso and Antiquity is part of the international Picasso Celebration 1973-2023 that marks the 50th anniversary of his death. The show will run from 16th September to 15th October.    

 

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Photo credit: Pablo Picasso, Homme regardant une femme endormie, Dinard, 1922, FABA, Succession Picasso 2023