Friendly: AS Monaco breeze past Feyenoord
AS Monaco secured their first pre-season victory by emphatically defeating Feyenoord 1-3, in a match where George Ilenikhena scored on debut.
The Match
Aligning his team in a 3-4-1-2 animation and notably bringing in Folarin Balogun and handing Ilenikhena a first start, this proved a fine formula for success, as Adi Hutter’s men produced a performance full of upside.
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Kicking off proceedings on a positive note, Les Monegasques conjured some promising early chances, with the likes of Ismail Jakobs, Takumi Minamino and Balogun firing off solid efforts.
ASM then deservedly scored when Ilenikhena marked his bow in style with a nicely taken goal in the 25th minute. The gifted attacker nearly made it two shortly after, but he blasted over.
Feyenoord made no mistake with their next opening, though, as Luka Ivanusec found the back of the net to level the ledger.
Having closed out the first half with some momentum, Feyenood were hoping to continue this into the second stanza. Guillermo Maripan stopped this, however, for he powered home his header to give Monaco the ascendancy again.
The Chilean international then turned provider by feeding fellow stopper Mohammed Salisu to put Monaco up 1-3.
And that was how it ended, which was a perfect way to breathe further life into their preparations for the upcoming campaign.
Ilenikhena’s dream start
Following Ilenikhena’s classy outing, it was interesting to look back on the comments of Monaco General Director Thiago Scuro on the exciting talent just prior to the Feyenoord clash. “As you know, our philosophy is to invest in young players with high potential, with the aim of developing them. We have followed George’s progress over the last two years, whether in Ligue 2 in France or last year in the Premier Division in Belgium,” he explained.
“We are therefore very happy that he chose AS Monaco to continue his development. His profile interested us a lot. He has a very good mentality and, above all, a great ambition, like us. There is often the temptation to compare when you have to replace a player numerically. We must respect what Wissam Ben Yedder did at Monaco, but they are two very different players. Today, we want to see the best version of George emerge with AS Monaco, and for him to be successful with the club. We already have two very high quality players in this position, with Folarin Balogun and Breel Embolo, who will be able to support him in his development.”
Transfer talk
Scuro then added this on ASM’s approach and plans in the transfer market: “There is no player courted by AS Monaco who is not the subject of a long process on our part before reaching the signing. Each profile must be observed by our scouting network, with supervision of numerous matches and study of the physical and mental profile. Adi Hutter obviously gives his opinion. Age is not necessarily a criterion.
“Above all, we want players who have the ambition to win, like us. Many people work for that, under the direction of Carlos Avina. We have discussions among ourselves, including with the President, who is part of the final discussions. Our job is to propose the best profiles for the club. We are working in the sectors where we believe we have needs. We are ready to respond to the possibilities of the market, and are confident that we will be able to sign one or two players in the coming days.”
On the horizon
Up next for Monaco is an important warm-up game on Sunday against Genoa, who’ll offer the Principality club another stern examination, as they continue in their pursuit to get up to full speed ahead of their Ligue 1 opener vs. AS Saint-Etienne on August 18.