Ligue 1: AS Monaco forced to settle for a draw after late Lorient leveller

Despite coming from behind to take the lead, AS Monaco were ultimately forced to settle for a draw with Lorient due to Tiemoue Bakayoko’s extremely late stoppage time strike.

The Match

Having failed to win any of their six previous home games in Ligue 1, Adi Hutter picked a strong team for this encounter, with him notably making just one change from the last match by bringing in Maghnes Akliouche for Folarin Balogun.

Getting off to a shocking start, Les Monegasques were stunned when Lorient took the lead just 33 seconds in through Wilfried Singo’s very unlucky own goal.

Eager to get back into the game, Aleksandr Golovin and Takumi Minamino fired off some attempts to restore some positive momentum.

The Japanese international then struck the post on 15 minutes, as Monaco began to settle into their groove inside the Stade Louis II.

It wasn’t long before ASM were back on even terms, however, for Formose Mendy suffered the misfortune of scoring an own goal as well just before the half-hour mark.

In control, dominating and primed to push forward, Monaco were the better side for the remainder of the first half even though Radoslaw Majecki had to be alert to deny Ayman Kari and Laurent Abergel.

Racing out of the blocks for the second stanza, Wissam Ben Yedder almost powered the home team ahead after Minamino and Akliouche had fired off sighters to kick off the half.

Youssouf Fofana would be the man to propel Monaco ahead through his quality header, with him finding the back of the net on the hour following Golovin’s wonderful delivery.

Wanting to seal the win, Akliouche duly rifled a wicked shot on net, only for the excellent Yvon Mvogo to produce a fine stop.

Disaster struck for ASM not long after, as Denis Zakaria was sent off while Aiyegun Tosin also received his marching orders for Lorient.

Just when Les Rouge et Blanc thought they’d done enough, Bakayoko headed home at the death to equalise against one of his former teams to frustratingly mean Monaco only secured the one point.

Hutter’s Debrief

“We still haven’t won in 2024 at the Stade Louis II. When I look at the score, it’s factual, we didn’t win. On the other hand, when I look at the match, we deserved to take the three points, because our team had a very good performance,” Hutter insisted.

“The statistics show that we have been much better. But the final moments got the better of the score. We missed five very big clear chances this evening, we should have won. We need to kill games more, which we failed to do today. I repeat, it’s a big disappointment not to win this evening. Two points taken against Lorient is tough given the scenario of the two matches.”

Key Stats

By the numbers, the fact ASM held the ascendancy in terms of expected goals (2.83 to 0.73), total shots (23 to 11), shots inside the box (18 to 9) and passes in the opposition half (273 to 156) certainly added to their frustration, in a game where they really should’ve taken all three points.

Golovin and Jakobs in the Spotlight

Before the start of this meeting, Dmitri Rybolovlev, the president of AS Monaco, presented Aleksandr Golovin and Ismail Jakobs with a collector’s jersey to reward their longevity at the club, with 200 matches for the former and 100 for the latter.

Up Next

While the Principality club extended their unbeaten streak to four and still occupy third in the standings, missing the chance to move into second was very disappointing. But with a trip to struggling Metz on the horizon, Monaco will be desperate to taste victory again and look to keep up their terrific away form that’s seen them secure 25 points from their 13 road matches.