For their first official match of the season, AS Monaco traveled this Sunday at 3 p.m. to play against Sparta Prague as part of the 3rd preliminary qualifying round for the prestigious Champions League.
Niko Kovac’s men secured a 2-0 victory in this first leg, which was interrupted after the first goal due to unacceptable racist chants.
AS Monaco needed to start their season in the best possible way by winning against Sparta Prague in the race for Champions League qualification.
For this first official match, coach Niko Kovac decided to return to last season’s basics: a 4-4-2 formation, a solid defense made up of Henrique – Disasi – Badiashile – Aguilar, the Fofana-Tchouaméni duo as midfielders (shining as they did all last season), Golovin and Martins on the flanks, and finally the experienced strikers Ben Yedder and Volland who combined for 39 goals in Ligue 1 last year.
The only change was in goal, with the arrival of Alexander Nubel, the German youth international loaned for two years to the Monaco team by Bayern Munich.
It was a solid performance by the principality club, dominating the entire match and allowing only one significant chance for Sparta in the first half. The little prince of Moscow, Alexander Golovin, continued impressing after his preseason form (2 goals in the last games) and orchestrated most of Monaco’s plays. Aurélien Tchouaméni also shone and seems to be headed for another excellent season. After scoring the opening goal in the 37th minute with a powerful header from the first corner of the match, he became the target of insults and racist chants from the Czech supporters, which caused the match to be temporarily suspended. Some players requested the match to be stopped permanently, but English referee Michael Oliver chose to follow UEFA protocol, airing a message asking spectators to support their team “respectfully,” with a suspension warning for any repeat offenses during the rest of the match. The match resumed, and the promising midfielder maintained his pace. His teammates continued to control the game until they found the net for a second time through Kevin Volland, the German international, at the hour mark. There could have been another German goal in the 80th minute, when Ismaïl Jakobs, newly arrived from Cologne, found himself facing Nita one minute after making his official debut. The Romanian goalkeeper won the duel, sparing his team from an even more challenging result to recover from.
The Monegasque team will therefore play their return match next Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the best conditions, at home, with a two-goal lead.
