Tag: monaco

AS Monaco came from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw against Auxerre, but after their competitors for Champions League football slipped up, Sébastien Pocognoli’s side missed a golden opportunity.

The worst was avoided, but Monaco left the Stade Louis II with regrets on Sunday afternoon. “Is the glass half empty or half full? We’ll judge at the end of the season. But it is a match that mirrors our season more globally: we’re reacting,” reacted Sébastien Pocognoli. You also wonder how Claude Puel views the result. The former Monaco manager was in attendance as the club celebrated 50 years of their renowned academy. Now manager of fierce rivals OGC Nice, who took a point off Lille on Saturday, his side are being chased by Auxerre, who themselves are hot on their heels in the fight to remain in Ligue 1.

Like Pocognoli, he wouldn’t have enjoyed the first half. Monaco started with intent but came up against a solid and compact block. Chances were always likely to be limited for Auxerre. But when they came, they were taken. Kévin Danois finished spectacularly, tracking a looping ball onto his right foot and volleying brilliantly from the outside of the box. The response from Monaco was not marked, and the task was made more difficult on the half-hour mark when Lassine Sinayoko, after a game of pinball on the edge of Les Monégasques’ box, finished first-time on the volley.

Monaco emerge for second half with “more pronounced mindset”

Monaco were down but not out, and it wouldn’t prove to be the knockout blow for a side that were looking to bounce back from last weekend’s 4-1 humbling at the hands of Paris FC. The reaction, however, was not immediate and the boos that accompanied the Monaco player’s trundle back to the dressing room were no surprise. Pocongoli has previously said that he only shouts when he feels it absolutely necessary. “It is the first time that, at half-time, I was very disappointed,” said Pocognoli. “He said what needed to be said,” added Wout Faes. Whatever was said or whatever the tone, it had an effect.

Granted, the introduction of Simon Adingra at the break, at the expense of Aladji Bamba, had its own effect, but for Pocognoli, it didn’t “explain the turnaround.” The Monaco manager added, “I think there was a more ‘pronounced’ [positive] mindset [in the second-half]. I wanted a reaction and it was a very good second half.”

Adingra provided the width on the left that gave Jordan Teze the space to curl a shot on target and truly test Donovan Léon for the first time. He couldn’t do anything about Ansu Fati’s right-footed effort minutes later. The deficit halved, something of a frenzy ensued. Three minutes later and Monaco were level thanks to Folarin Balogun, who, having been downed by Léon in the box, got up and blasted his penalty down the middle. The USMNT forward then thought he had given the home side the lead, only for the offside flag to cut short the celebrations, and all the while, Auxerre continued to look dangerous on the break.

Monaco – not exactly a flat-track bully

Bar his spectacular goal, Sinayoko was wasteful, and Monaco will be thankful for that. Found unmarked inside the box, he had time and space to restore Auxerre’s lead, but could only put a tepid effort right at Hradecky. Some intelligent game management allowed the storm to pass and Monaco could not build up a head of steam as they searched for the late winner.

After Lille and Marseille both dropped points on Saturday, Monaco saw a golden opportunity to cut the gap pass them by. “It is a shame because we had the chance to be the beneficiaries of those results. If we want to challenge them, we have to take our chances. That will be decisive. Everything will have to align for us to have a finish to the season in line with our ambitions,” said Pocognoli.

Monaco will now hit the road, with games away to Toulouse and Metz, matches certainly winnable on paper… but so was this match against Auxerre and the one last weekend against Paris FC. Ultimately, however, the Principality club took just one point from these matches, compared to the six that they took against Marseille and Lyon in the two previous gameweeks. ASM conclude the season against two European challengers in the form of Lille and Strasbourg. It is not just by beating those around them that they will secure Champions League qualification for next season.

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Photo source: AS Monaco