Away at Amiens for the 16th Ligue 1 match day of the season, AS Monaco came out with a 2-0 victory on Tuesday night at the Stade de la Licorne. Radamel Falcao scored a brace giving the Monegasques their second consecutive win on the road.
Overall, this victory is a very positive result for Thierry Henry’s AS Monaco! The matchup pitted the Ligue 1 number 18 and 19 teams against each other. The decisive win is pivotal for Monaco to begin their effort to avoid relegation. The win puts the rouges et blancs ahead of Amiens in the standings, moving them into 17th position with 13 points.
Scoring was opened after Amiens’ Krafth came in late on a challenge and hurtled Badiashile to the ground in his defending box on the back end of the first half (43′). The star of the match, Colombian striker Radamel Falcao, stepped up and buried the penalty low and hard. The score at half-time: 1-0 for AS Monaco
The Rocher’s defense looked solid to open the second half. The players certainly showed more life and fight than in their last outing against Montpellier, which helped build confidence. Luck smiled down on them when Amiens player Dibassy was given a red card for a dangerous challenge late in the game (93 ‘). This was followed closely by a second penalty (Pelé was fouled by the Amiens goalkeeper), which Radamel Falcao put away nicely (90 ‘+ 7’). Final score: 2-0 for AS Monaco, who finally moved out of the relegation zone with this victory.
A “6-point” swing in Amiens
Experiencing significant difficulty for the past few months, the match marks AS Monaco’s third success of the 2018-19 Ligue 1 campaign. Winning against another team at the bottom of the table is equivalent to a six-point swing, allowing Monaco to leapfrog Amiens. The result gives Henry’s men a bit of breathing room, and will hopefully generate some confidence going into the next league match against southern rivals OGC Nice.
Henry appeared satisfied with the performance and shifted focus to the next game, with a few words about his team’s defensive effort: “This win against Amiens is good preparation for our game against Nice this Friday. I enjoyed our match against Montpellier but in terms of defensive intensity, we were even better against Amiens. We were not threatened often, and Diego Benaglio only had to make one big save.” He went on: “We won’t get too excited. There is still a tremendous amount of work to be done. We will take the best aspects of each match and mix them up. Amiens posed a lot of problems, but we had the answers. We’ll continue building as a team.”
Next fixture: Friday, December 7 against OGC Nice at the Stade Louis II.