Kylian Mbappe didn’t do much wrong in Monaco’s 5-3 defeat at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night. The 18-year-old prodigy showcased his incredible talent once again, this time in front of the whole world. And what a talent he is, despite fatigue clearly getting the better of him — like his team — in the second half.
For his first-ever start in the Champions League, Mbappe looked so impressive. At 18 and two months, he became the second-youngest French player to score in this competition behind Karim Benzema, who was 17 and 11 months when he did it for Lyon. There’s one thing Mbappe failed to do, though. At 11:20 p.m., he was still inside the stadium trying to satisfy his anti-doping test.
When he eventually left the ground, though, he could hold his head high — just like all of his teammates. Of course, Monaco lost this crazy, incredible match of football. But they made their club proud.
“I am so proud of my players. This is how we play football, this is our style. This is a great publicity for French football and we believe we can go through in the second leg, even if it will be really tough,” said Monaco vice president Vadim Vasilyev after the match.
Monaco also made French football proud, of course. Their attacking display — with the talent of Bernardo Silva, the genius of Radamel Falcao for the second goal, the attacking support from the full-backs, Mbappe and the work rate of Thomas Lemar — was breathtaking from start to finish. They pressed high, arriving and finding spaces from everywhere, combining, overlapping each other, creating chances (six in total), scoring three goals and missing a penalty just after the break.
They were a breath of fresh air — a sensation. Despite a lot of warnings, I don’t think people outside of France realised before the game started just how good this team are going forward. You don’t score 111 goals in all competitions at this stage of the season by chance. Monaco are the most entertaining and lethal side in Europe right now.
However, great teams are the ones who can deals with the moments when they are on the back foot and not at their best. You can’t be on top of your game for 90 minutes at this level, unless you are PSG against Barcelona last week. Monaco didn’t deal well with those weaker moments. At 3-2 up after 70 minutes, they should have never let City back in the game. They wanted to continue to attack instead of being more defensive-minded, which is always a problem with attacking teams. They know they can score anytime, anywhere, so they always want to go forward.
“We made mistakes. We gifted them goals. We need to learn from those mistakes if we want to qualify. We lacked a bit of experience maybe and physically it was hard towards the end. We should have closed the game at 3-2 for us. We are a
Monaco also made French football proud, of course. Their attacking display — with the talent of Bernardo Silva, the genius of Radamel Falcao for the second goal, the attacking support from the full-backs, Mbappe and the work rate of Thomas Lemar — was breathtaking from start to finish. They pressed high, arriving and finding spaces from everywhere, combining, overlapping each other, creating chances (six in total), scoring three goals and missing a penalty just after the break.
They were a breath of fresh air — a sensation. Despite a lot of warnings, I don’t think people outside of France realised before the game started just how good this team are going forward. You don’t score 111 goals in all competitions at this stage of the season by chance. Monaco are the most entertaining and lethal side in Europe right now.
However, great teams are the ones who can deals with the moments when they are on the back foot and not at their best. You can’t be on top of your game for 90 minutes at this level, unless you are PSG against Barcelona last week. Monaco didn’t deal well with those weaker moments. At 3-2 up after 70 minutes, they should have never let City back in the game. They wanted to continue to attack instead of being more defensive-minded, which is always a problem with attacking teams. They know they can score anytime, anywhere, so they always want to go forward.
“We made mistakes. We gifted them goals. We need to learn from those mistakes if we want to qualify. We lacked a bit of experience maybe and physically it was hard towards the end. We should have closed the game at 3-2 for us. We are a young team and it showed a bit,” said Fabinho after the match.
The team was not helped by the apathy of Leonardo Jardim, either. As good as the manager has been this campaign — and he has been fantastic — he made a mistake with his first substitution. It took too long to swap Valere Germain for Mbappe on 79 minutes and he should have brought Joao Moutinho or Nabil Dirar into the match earlier.
Jardim eventually lost his tactical battle with Pep Guardiola. The contest between the two managers was as good as the game itself. Monaco’s 4-4-2 dealt well at first with Manchester City’s 4-3-3 and all of their permutations. In the second half, however, when the visitors’ legs started to tire, Guardiola’s tweaks (changing to a 3-4-3, with Pablo Zabaleta coming on and Bacary Sagna’s being repositioned) made a huge difference.
Monaco now have three weeks to find a way to knock this Manchester City team, which was as great in attack as it was poor in defence, out of the Champions League.
They will try to find hope somewhere, anywhere. What about destiny? Back in March 2004, Monaco lost 4-2 under then-manager Didier Deschamps at the Santiago Bernabeu against Real Madrid and Galacticos Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham, Raul and Luis Figo in the Champions League quarterfinal first leg. It looked like the tie was over, like they could never come back, but Monaco won 3-1 at home in the second leg and went through on away goals (5-5 on aggregate). Madrid were as unbalanced defensively as this year’s Manchester City team. Thirteen years later, Monaco are ready for a similar feat.
Support InfoStride News' Credible Journalism: Only credible journalism can guarantee a fair, accountable and transparent society, including democracy and government. It involves a lot of efforts and money. We need your support. Click here to Donate