It was certainly a night to forget for AS Monaco as they suffered an emphatic 4-0 defeat at the hands of Trabzonspor in their Europa League clash.
Match
Facing the Turkish giants for the second time in a week after winning 3-1 at home, the Monegasques could not repeat that performance away from home as they were no match for Trabzonspor.
Although the match started evenly with both teams settling down, Monaco would eventually start to control the game. Philippe Clement’s men looked comfortable in possession and created several promising chances and were certainly the most likely to open the scoring.
But things went from bad to worse during the game when Malang Sar inadvertently headed the ball into his own net after a poor pass from Alexandre Nubel just before the break to give the home side the lead.
The tide then turned in Trabzonspor’s favor in the second half as Vitor Ugo quickly doubled their lead with a header in the 48th minute. Ennis Bardi added to the pain soon after as he slotted home a fierce free-kick before Trezeguet made it 4-0 with 20 minutes remaining.
Despite Clement making a host of changes, it wasn’t Monaco’s night as the defeat dropped them to third place in their group with two matches to play.
Clement’s debrief
“We started this meeting well. We dominated the first 43 minutes and did some good things in both defense and attack. We had a lot of situations but we weren’t effective. We concede the first goal and then miss the second despite a good start to the period,” he reflected.
“Then we stopped playing collectively. The team has been our strength over the last few weeks and months, but that wasn’t the case today after the break and we have to learn from that. It shows us that you always have to play as a team to be dominant. We are a team, we win and lose together. But with two games left, fate is still in our hands. It depends on us what we will do.”
By the numbers
While ASM leads in expected goals (0.89 to 0.82), total shots (17 to 15), corners (11 to 3), blocked shots (5 to 2) and assists in the opponent’s half ( 168 to 165), a clinical Trabzonspor made the most of their chances and punished Monaco for their mistakes to push them to victory.
Next
Looking to immediately put this match in the rear-view mirror and recalibrate their focus, Monaco’s next match is Clermont-Foot at the Stade Louis II in Ligue 1, where they will aim to get back to winning ways.
