Ligue 1: AS Monaco suffer cruel loss to end their season

AS Monaco ended their season in disappointing fashion by losing 1-2 to Toulouse, with this result ensuring they miss out on qualifying for European football next term.

Indeed, the fact Lille drew with Troyes makes the defeat even more frustrating, for if ASM had won they would’ve secured a UEFA Europa Conference League spot.

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The Match

Facing off with a Toulouse outfit that didn’t have much to play for, Philippe Clement picked a strong team that featured plenty of offensive power in the form of Wissam Ben Yedder, Eliesse Ben Seghir and Takumi Minamino.

Starting the match positively, the home team created some presentable openings in the early stages, as the likes of Ben Yedder and Minamino came close.

The in-form Alexander Nubel then came to his side’s rescue near the half-hour mark when he produced a superb double save to deny Logan Costa and Veljko Birmancevic in quick succession.

Although Ben Yedder and Youssouf Fofana had decent efforts prior to the interval, the two teams went into the sheds level.

The second stanza began with both teams having some reasonable looks at goal. But, devastatingly for ASM, it was Toulouse who struck first courtesy of Zakaria Aboukhlal in the 70th minute.

Ben Yedder levelled the ledger shortly after (78th) with an instinctive finish to keep their European hopes alive to set up a grandstand finale.

Despite Monaco’s best efforts, which saw them hit the woodwork twice late on, they were ultimately unable to grab a second in the dying embers of the match, as Toulouse instead capitalised on the spaces left behind by ASM to snatch victory at the death through Rhys Healey.

Ending their crusade in a cruel manner, this outcome sealed their fate, thus leaving them in sixth place in the final Ligue 1 standings.

Clement’s Debrief

“It is a great disappointment, it’s obviously a failure for us. Today, once again, the scenario is cruel, because we were very close to going ahead with the two posts at the very end,” the Belgian lamented.

“But when you take risks to score, you expose yourself to transitions that you don’t normally concede. I saw a team that gave everything until the last second to win the match.

“I told my players that we didn’t lose our place in Europe today, but in several other matches where we didn’t show the energy and the mentality. It’s a result that I assume responsibility for, even if we all lost together.”

Key Stats

Even though ASM enjoyed more possession (57% to 43%), completed more passes in the opposition half (296 to 128) and won more overall duels (47 to 55), their inability to keep Toulouse quiet cost them in the end, for Les Violets held the ascendancy in terms of expected goals (2.75 to 2.20) and total shots (22 to 19).

Season Done

Closing their season disastrously with three straight losses to let slip a European place, Les Monegasques will now immediately switch their focus to next season, where they’ll look to strengthen their squad and come out swinging to get back where they belong – at the upper echelons of Ligue 1.