Champions League: Kehrer’s late winner propels AS Monaco to victory vs. Bologna

Thilo Kehrer’s late winner powered AS Monaco to a crucial Champions League away win over Bologna at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara under the eyes of President Dmitry Rybolovlev.

The Match

Having lost two consecutive matches, Adi Hutter picked the same team that lost against Angers at the weekend, knowing they had what it took to get the victory the club so dearly craved.

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Bologna unsurprisingly started off the better of the two, as Juan Miranda fired off an early sighter to give the home fans some encouragement.

Breel Embolo then had ASM’s first attempt tipped onto the woodwork by Lukasz Skorupski.

Not long after, the away side thought they’d opened the scoring only for Wilfried Singo’s goal to be ruled out for a foul on Skorupski.

A flurry of goalmouth action then came to end the half, with Aleksandr Golovin and Maghnes Akliouche coming close for ASM, while Sam Beukema and Santiago Castro, who had a goal taken away due to an offside, weren’t far off for Bologna.

With the two Polish goalkeepers, Radoslaw Majecki and Skorupski, in fine form, both outfits were finding it hard to break the deadlock.

The best of the chances fell to Giovanni Fabbian and Caio Henrique before Kehrer came up big to propel Les Rouge et Blanc ahead in the 86th minute courtesy of his late strike.

From there, ASM managed the remainder of the contest nicely to secure all three points to not only put them in a brilliant position to progress to the next stage of the competition, but also to ensure they became the first team to win at the Dall’Ara in a European fixture.

Hutter’s Debrief

“A game lasts 90 minutes and when you score in the last few moments it can always be a bit lucky. But when you look at the scenario of the game, I think we deserved to take the three points, especially when you look at our first half which was good. We were then solid in the second to prevent Bologna from creating chances. We now have ten points from four games, it’s an important step in this race for the play-offs,” explained the Austrian tactician.

“As a coach, the most important thing was to see a reaction after the defeat against Angers. It was fantastic, we showed that we were capable of playing fast football in the first half. We must not forget that we have one of the youngest teams in the competition (it was the youngest starting XI in the club’s history in the competition, as per ASM), so I am proud of what they showed tonight.”

Key Stats

By the numbers, the fact ASM held the ascendancy in terms of expected goals (0.91 to 0.57), total shots (10 to 7), shots on target (4 to 2), big chances created (2 to 0), possession (54% to 64%) and completed passes in the opposition half (154 to 112) demonstrated their strong body of work on both sides of the ball.

Strasbourg On The Horizon

Following this vital triumph on the road to extend their unbeaten streak in the UCL, Les Monegasques will now quickly turn their attention to their key Ligue 1 match with Strasbourg, as they’ll be fully focused on winning again to head into the international break in style.

“It’s true that we are in the top positions of the standings, but we are fully focused on the next match in Strasbourg. I don’t know if we can talk about the top eight because the Champions League has a new format this season and nobody knows exactly how many points you need to go through to the next round,” Hutter insisted.

“The next four opponents will be tough (Benfica, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Inter Milan), but we will be able to play with more confidence. I know that we will be able to win the next match even if we are opposed to a good team, as was the case with Bologna tonight.”