Football: Monaco return to winning ways ahead of Arsenal encounter

Thilo Kehrer and the rest of the Monaco squad congratulate Singo as he gives Monaco the lead against Toulouse at the Stade Louis II

AS Monaco bounced back from back-to-back defeats to register a timely victory against Toulouse (2-0) at the Stade Louis II on Saturday and close the gap on Ligue 1 leaders PSG.

Despite strong performances against Benfica and Marseille, the results made for difficult reading from a Monaco point-of-view. The defeats saw them drop down the table in the Champions League and Ligue 1, with the late defeat to OM seeing them overtaken by their opponents on the night, albeit only on goal difference.

“The results left us a bit unsatisfied but I’m not concerned about the performances,” said Adi Hütter ahead of Saturday’s match. Against Toulouse, Monaco put in the performance and had the result to match.

Patience was required from Monaco who were wasteful in the first half. George Ilenikhena was brought into the line-up to get the goals. Whilst he had the chances to put the game to bed, he showed a level of profligacy that has characterised Breel Embolo’s game in recent weeks.

Monaco suffer double injury blow pre-match

Ilenikhena’s lobbed effort early on struck the post and before half-time, he would go on to hit the bar and shoot just wide from a strong position. He could have had a hat-trick, instead, Monaco went into the break with the scores level.

However, it didn’t stay that way for long. Lamine Camara was the leading figure in a re-moulded midfield. Both Soungoutou Magassa and Denis Zakaria withdrew just before the game, the latter doing so a matter a minutes before kick-off. Camara was always likely to start, however, he had to quickly build an on-field rapport with Eliot Matazo, who has featured infrequently in recent months.

It was Camara’s excellent in-swinging free-kick that found Wilfried Singo at the back post to open the scoring. Once ahead, Monaco didn’t look like ceding their advantage with Singo and Co. providing the security at the back to contain the Toulouse forward line, which remained uncharacteristically quiet. Le TéFéCé had won four of their last five matches coming into this one but their performance was subdued.

One goal looked to be enough but Embolo doubled Les Monégasques’ advantage late on with a calmly taken chipped header. “We deserved this victory. We dominated this game from start to finish, especially in the second half,” analysed Hütter post-match.

Monaco-PSG tantalisingly poised

It is a result that sees the gap to PSG closed to five points after Les Parisiens slipped up against Auxerre earlier in the weekend. The match against PSG, at the Stade Louis II on 18th December is now tantalisingly poised; win it, and Monaco will once again be firmly thrust into the title conversation.

Before that, however, there is a date with Arsenal to look forward to. “Arsenal are one of the best teams at the moment, with a fantastic squad. It is basically impossible to entirely defend against them, but we aren’t going there to play in a defensive block, we are going there to play the best game possible,” said Hütter, previewing Wednesday’s game at the Emirates. Saturday’s victory means that they head to London full of confidence.

 

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Photo source: AS Monaco