It was enough for four minutes to switch Monaco from the nightmare to dream. In search of a ticket for the knockout stages of the Champions League, the Monegasques bowed at home against Benfica de Lisbon (0-1), weighed down by a disastrous sequence on the return from the locker room. Unable to compete on the technical level, Adi Hütter’s men first fell in love with a defensive error, before seeing Moatasem al-Musrati to be excluded, leaving his team ten for more than forty minutes.
From the 48th minute, Monaco sank. A duel lost by Mohammed salted against the inevitable Vangelis Pavlidis was enough to open the way to Portuguese. Served in depth by Tomas Araujo, the Greek striker played the Ghanaian defender before beating major with an unstoppable dive. A high class gesture in a very low technical meeting at the technical level.
Over 40 minutes to ten against eleven
Barely time to take the blow that Monaco already found himself in great difficulty. Four minutes after the opening of the score, Al-Musrati, already warned, asked for a box for his opponent … before being excluded by the referee (52nd). Reduced to ten, the Monegasques have seen their hope of equalization flying off. Despite the entries of Takumi Minamino and Eliesse Ben Seghir, the Principality club has never managed to pack the meeting.
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Breel Embolo, a fighter in the forefront, did not find the fault, and the visitors, supported by 2,000 LisBoets supporters, checked the debates. The only satisfaction for Monaco: to have avoided a second goal that would have definitely sealed his fate. The challenge will be huge next Tuesday at the Luz stadium, where the Monegasques will have to win to hope to join the knockout stages. A feat all the more complicated as they will be deprived of Vanderson and Denis Zakaria, both suspended after having received a warning at the end of the match.