Football/Coupe de France: Monaco goes into semi-finals
This qualification announces a month of fire for Monaco! With six very important matches to play in 20 days: three in L1, in Marseille, Strasbourg and against Paris SG, but also the Cup semi-final on March 2 or 3, and the 8are final, round trip, of the Europa League, March 10 and 17.
Before this marathon, Monegasque coach Philippe Clément is already all about L1 and the reception of Lorient on Sunday. Because Monaco, which is seven points behind Marseille and a direct qualification in C1, the club’s N.1 objective, has no choice but to win to gradually return.
Against Amiens, he had therefore decided to rotate. Like his predecessor, Niko Kovac, he benched his captain, Wissam Ben Yedder, along with Nübel, Maripan, Caio Henrique, Diop and Sidibé.
But his starting team, with a first tenure for young left attacking midfielder Maghnes Akliouche, soon to be 20 but not yet professional, looked great. Moreover, she very quickly put pressure on her opponent. On his first corner, badly returned with a full ax head by Amiens captain Mateo Pavlovic, Aurélien Tchouameni took advantage to score. His half-volley from the right went into the small-net of the Picard goalkeeper, trained in Monaco, Yohann Thuram-Ulien (1-0, 5and).
From then on, Monaco tried to manage. But Amiens has created great opportunities. Italian goalkeeper Vito Mannone distinguished himself in front of Aliou Badji (17and and 50and), Emmanuel Lomotey (20and) and Kader Bamba (49and). Once Monaco scored their second goal, by Kevin Volland, well served by Akliouche (2-0, 54and), author of a very good job in the surface, the match was folded. And Monaco, already a finalist in 2021, will play at least the semi-finals in 2022.