second consecutive defeat for Monaco, beaten by Lens

0

Decidedly, the Monegasques are not getting there at the start of the Ligue 1 season. Even in numerical superiority for a good part of the second half, even with their public who pushed, AS Monaco did not succeed to beat RC Lens, nor to obtain the draw against the Sang et Or in its Louis-II stadium, Saturday, August 21. For the second consecutive day of the championship, after Lorient on Friday August 13 (0-1), Niko Kovac’s team lost to the Lensois (0-2).

The eight days which separated this match in Brittany from that against Lens this Saturday, the Monegasques will quickly have to forget them. Because in the meantime, they also experienced the defeat against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday August 17 (0-1), in the first leg of the play-off for qualification for the group stage of the Champions League.

Read also Champions League: Monaco, beaten at home by Shakhtar, will have to make up for it in the return match

With this European course, Monaco is the Ligue 1 team that played the most matches in August. The legs are heavier and the minds less lucid in front of the goal. It was felt this Saturday against Lensois who were not worried by uninspired Monegasques. They barely trembled during the last twenty-five minutes of play, after the expulsion of Cheick Doucouré for a foul on Krépin Diatta (61e).

Ganago plays with the Monegasque defense

Before that, Franck Haise’s players had provided the essentials, with a goal that surprised the locals. Ignatius Ganago played against the young Monegasque defender Strahinja Pavlovic and took advantage of an error of assessment by goalkeeper Alexander Nübel to open the scoring (52e). Lens realized his only chance of the match and the blow smelled of heist.

But Monaco did not do much better, with only two shots on target, those distant from Jean Lucas (38e) and Caio Henrique (74e). Frustrated, the Monegasques also ended the game at ten, with the exclusion of Aleksandr Golovin (87e), and sank with an error from Caio Henrique punished by a goal from Simon Banza in the last seconds of the match (90 + 4e).

By winning on the lawn of Monaco, Lens pocketed his first success of the season. Kovac’s team, meanwhile, have just one point in three games and have already missed their start to the season. To reassure and console herself, she will have to win in Ukraine on Wednesday August 25, against Shakhtar, to hope to play in the Champions League this season.

Denis Ménétrier