Six years later, AS Monaco enjoys its return to the Champions League against Barcelona!

A big match and a victory! With a man advantage and more enterprising throughout, the AS Monaco players recorded  a prestigious victory against FC Barcelona (2-1), on the Club’s return to the Champions League. All this, in a full Stade Louis-II, and in the presence of HSH Prince Albert II and President Dmitry Rybolovlev, who congratulated captain Denis Zakaria for the team’s performance after the match.✍️

The context 📅
It waas with the confidence of a good start to the season in Ligue 1 (3 wins, 1 draw) and strong from a victory in preseason against the Blaugrana in the Joan Gamper Trophy (0-3), that the Rouge et Blanc started this Champions League campaign. Their opponents, Hansi Flick’s side had made their own great start to La Liga (5 wins, 17 goals scored), led by 17-year-old prodigy, Lamine Yamal.

The eleven 👥
To face this Barça reinvigorated by their strong form, Adi Hütter decided to trust in his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, with the trio Akliouche – Minamino – Ben Seghir leading the Monaco attack. Wilfried Singo was a starter on the right side of the defense, while Vanderson was exceptionally tasked with playing on the left flank.

The scenario 🎞
This gala match was played in a great atmosphere at the Stade Louis-II, which was sold out for the occasion. We would have to wait until the 7th minute to witness a first attempt from Eliesse Ben Seghir. Then the match took an unexpected turn, when Eric Garcia received a straight red card (10′). Lamine Camara’s free kick then hit the Barcelona wall (12′), before Breel Embolo was stopped by Ter Stegen (14′).

Magic Maghnes opens the scoring!But the spark will ultimately come from Maghnes Akliouche, who, by cutting back into the center, perfectly finished with his left foot at the near post (1-0, 16′)! What an action from the Monegasque number 11, scorer of his tenth goal in la Diagonale . The joy was unfortunately short-lived, as after unsuccessful attempts by Camara (21′) and Embolo (27′), Lamine Yamal scored the in a similar fashion to the opening goal (1-1, 28′).