Ligue 1: AS record vital victory vs. Le Havre to go joint-top of the table

Despite being pushed by a determined Le Havre in the first half, AS Monaco ultimately claimed a vital 3-1 win, with goals from Jordan Teze, Eliesse Ben Seghir and Folarin Balogun powering them to glory under the eyes of President Dmitry Rybolovlev.

The Match

Following their exceptional Champions League triumph over Barcelona, Adi Hutter opted to make a host of changes to keep things fresh, as he brought in the likes of Teze, Balogun, George Ilenikhena, Caio Henrique, Aleksandr Golovin and Soungoutou Magassa to start.

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Racing out of the blocks with energy and intensity, ASM shot to an early lead when Teze latched onto Takumi Minamino’s cross to score his first goal for his new team.

Appearing in control and comfortable, Le Havre then roared into life to catch out Les Monegasques and level the ledger through Daler Kuzyaez on the half-hour mark.

While Balogun immediately tried to respond, his effort narrowly missed (hitting the woodwork), as the encounter remained 1-1 at the break.

Recognising the need to make further alterations, Hutter introduced Denis Zakaria and Ben Seghir for the second stanza.

In what was a feisty start to the final 45, Le Havre thought they’d struck only for Josue Casimir’s goal to be ruled out for offside.

Knowing they’d need to pick up their game and impose themselves again if they were to have any chance of winning, that’s precisely what they did. Rewarding their uptick in output fittingly, exciting youngster Ben Seghir brilliantly found the back of the net in the 66th minute.

Les Rouge et Blanc then quickly extended their advantage courtesy of Balogun, who smartly finished to propel his team to a 3-1 lead.

Seeing out the game smoothly thereafter, this hard-fought victory crucially sees Monaco join Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille at the top of the Ligue 1 standings.

Hutter’s Debrief

“First of all, I am very happy with this latest success, which was very important for me. Even more so with yesterday’s result (PSG drawing). Of course, it wasn’t our best performance today, because we struggled a lot in the first half. But it was normal after Barcelona. And in the end, I am especially happy to take the three points. It is very satisfying,” reflected the Austrian tactician.

He proceeded to insightfully add this on their improved second half: “We actually decided to make two changes at half-time, and in particular to bring on Eliesse, who is in great form at the moment. He scored a fantastic goal! But more generally, we were much better than in the first half, with more aggression and intensity. We managed to score twice in the space of a few minutes, and that illustrates our style of play, which is very offensive.

“The most important thing is that we saw a different team in the second half. It’s never easy to start again after the Champions League, so I want to congratulate my team.”

Key Stats

By the numbers, the fact ASM held the ascendancy in terms of expected goals (1.98 to 0.57), total shots (12 to 8), shots inside the box (8 to 4), possession (62% to 38%), passes inside the opposition half (231 to 95) and overall duels won (62 to 36) demonstrated they were good value for the win even though they didn’t have it all their own way.

Centenary Awaits

Having now won four of their opening five league clashes, up next for ASM is Montpellier, who’ll come out swinging at the Stade Louis II after just winning their first Ligue 1 match of the season, on a night where ASM will celebrate the centenary of the Principality club.