With Lyon and Lille, it is the team in very good form at the moment in Ligue 1. In a summit meeting against second-placed Brest, Monaco was able to thwart Éric Roy’s men to leave Brittany with three points very important in the race for the Champions League (0-2). With a seventh consecutive match without defeat, the Monegasques are now second behind Paris and ahead of their opponent of the day.
Lille’s victory against Strasbourg earlier in the afternoon had set the tone. Monaco needed to achieve a good result in Brest to continue this fight for the podium. And Adi Hütter’s players were able to prove that they were keen to return to the Champions League six years later, imposing their pressure on Brest players deprived of the suspended Lees-Melou and the injured Brassier. Even if after 15 minutes of domination, Monaco got scared and found themselves harassed by Brest, eager to maintain their invincibility at home.
In the 18th minute, Le Cardinal’s cross was too powerful and on the following corner, Doumbia’s shot was blocked. Unleashed, the Brestois followed up with a nice shot (not on target however) from Satriano after eliminating Youssouf Fofana (19th). After ten minutes of hesitation, Francis-le-Blé woke up after a superb collective action from Brest which ended with a blocked cross from Lala. But Brest’s highlight will be extinguished by Monaco and Denis Zakaria. While the Breton defenders had stopped playing after a scramble from Minamino, the Swiss had time to apply himself to open the scoring with a sublime curled ball (40th).
The Brest reaction expected by an entire stadium did not take place. After the break, Monaco got another opportunity through Minamino who scored straight away, taking a cross from Krépin Diatta (48th) to score his eighth goal of the season. Two minutes later, Balogun could have ended all the suspense if his recovery had not ended in a corner.
We will have to wait for the return of Mahdi Camara and Jérémy Le Douaron to see the Brestois enterprising against their opponents. In the 62nd minute, the first crosses for the second but the shot is then blocked. Subsequently, Brest will not be able to worry Monaco, the end of the match being marked by the yellow cards received by Lala, Akliouche or even Camara. But especially by the red cards of Ben Seghir and Singo. At ten, then at nine for the very last minutes, ASM continued to manage to offer themselves a solid victory before an equally important match for the podium against Lille on Wednesday.
