AS Monaco suffer a costly defeat against Strasbourg
Faced with one of its rivals for the European qualifying places in Strasbourg, AS Monaco unfortunately lost 1-0.
The game
Sounding in the changes for this game, the likes of Sofiane Diop, Djibril Sidibe and Ismail Jakobs entered the fray as Philippe Clement knew he had to rotate his squad during this busy time. But that was unfortunately not enough to propel Monaco to victory, with the visiting team once again struggling to find the back of the net.
Despite an equal start to the match, it was Strasbourg who opened the scoring following an incredible scissor kick from Alexander Djiku. Although securing the equalizer was Monaco’s clear intention, they simply couldn’t get back on track.
Ultimately unsuccessful efforts by Gelson Martins, Kevin Volland and Diop before the break gave the Monegasques hope ahead of the break. But the second half unfortunately proved a case of close but no cigar too, with attempts from Martins, Vanderson and Aleksandr Golovin simply failing to hit the mark.
Nubel debriefing
Alexander Nubel’s frustration was evident as he spoke after the game, insisting his side needed to immediately turn their attention to their challenges ahead after the setback. “We lost, so we are all bound to be disappointed. The first half was okay, but the second, especially the last 30 minutes, wasn’t good enough. We weren’t aggressive enough to score a goal that would have revived us, so for us it wasn’t a good game,” he said.
“From tomorrow, we will have to think about things to work on, but the good news is that Thursday we will play another big game, against Braga, and it will be a very good opportunity for us to bounce back. We don’t look at the board, we are focused on the games to come and we have to keep working hard. We want to bounce back, there are still a lot of matches left between now and the end of the season, so everything is still possible.”
Goals remain difficult to achieve
As mentioned earlier, AS Monaco’s lack of goals continues to be a real problem, having only seen them find the back of the net five times in their last seven matches.
Struggling to produce those high quality chances and get enough shots off the net, this game illustrated their issues as they only put together five shots in total (none of which were on target) with a reading of expected goals of only 0.74.
Key figures
Even if the result was not ideal, it was not for lack of effort. Indeed, this was demonstrated by the fact that Monaco outstripped their opponents in terms of ground duels won (39 to 30), aerial duels won (24 to 22), total duels won (63 to 52) and of tackles won (10 to 9).
Big week ahead
Falling to their fourth loss in their last seven games in all competitions with this latest loss, Monaco will need to quickly recalibrate their focus ahead of a massive week, which will not only see them play Braga in the Europa League, where they will be desperate. to overturn a two-goal deficit but also engage in a colossal clash with Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 on Sunday.