Monaco took advantage of a rare opportunity.
Win-win approach
Both teams approached this match without defeats in their respective home leagues. In addition, Barcelona, which seems to continue to suffer, complain and complain and have problems with financing, has had a very bright start in the Spanish league, where it has won five games out of five with a total difference of +13. Also, along the way, it scored seven unanswered goals against Valladolid and defeated last season’s sensational Girona with a score of 4:1. In general, under Hans-Dieter Flick, Barcelona has improved. However, skeptics will attribute this to the traditional “romantic” starting point. Let’s see further.
On the other hand, Monaco, who returns to the Champions League with a squeak. They also started well in Ligue 1, but in addition to three victories, they conceded a draw, which is why they are only third in France, behind PSG by two points. But they have kept clean sheets in three of their four games, while Barcelona have done so in four of their five. But the main thing is that both teams came into this match without any defeats. And that is always further intriguing.
The discard begins
Talking about the previous day of Champions League, we paid a lot of attention to the goalkeepers. Which is logical. IN PSG Matvey Safonov made his debut and Paulo Gassaniga turned from a hero to a loser in a minute. Life itself dictated these reasons. He decided to continue the next game day.
The key event in the development of the match, of course, was the expulsion of Eric Garcia in the tenth minute. And what does the goalkeeper have to do with it? But the fault lies with him, Marc-André ter Stegen. While he was in possession of the ball, he saw his opponent approaching him. It seemed that the most logical option would be to take it further, but for some reason the goalkeeper decided to pass it to his neighbor, who was right in front of him.
It turned out that this man was Garcia, but the problem is that Eric himself was covered by Takumi Minamino. And this was no surprise to Ter Stegen. It was happening right under his nose. He saw that the Japanese was in front of Garcia. And he made a crazy pass. Of course Takumi preceded the Catalan and was forced to commit a foul, receiving a red card for it. Because then there was only the goalkeeper and the goal. It is difficult to find a more ridiculous “configuration”.
And the next game showed that Ter Stegen was clearly not at ease. Maybe it was this situation with Garcia stuck that took over, and Marc-André couldn’t get the episode out of his head. Although goalkeepers have to have thick skin, especially with so much experience and baggage behind them.
There were also episodes when questions arose about the goalkeeper of Barcelona. You can remember the exit when he accidentally hit the ball with his fist and it bounced closer to the goal and not far from it. Also noteworthy is the second goal of Monaco. After all, George Ilenikhena shot forcefully, but right at the goalkeeper, and Ter Stegen decided to guess and fell to the side, so he could not save. In the episode of the first goal of the Monegasques, someone will also blame the goalkeeper, although this is a less obvious story. Yes, Ter Stegen missed the ball, but his view was blocked by a defender.
Pressure without exhaust
What can we say about the game as a whole? First of all, it should not be perceived as a comparison with equal initial data. We must always take into account that Barcelona played in a minority. Yes, let’s say that the Catalan leaders seemed unimportant, faded and did not show up for almost anything, except for the postponement of Lamin Yamal. But playing with ten men against Monaco is not an easy task.
Here you can also find further reasons to criticize the Monaco team. With all their pressure, they managed to concede the power play. At that point we notice that Barcelona did not have a single shot even towards Philippe Ken’s goal. That is, the first attempt turned out to be a goal. Monaco shot a lot and often found themselves with the ball in someone else’s penalty area. But they just got this victory.
In the first half, the hosts had ten shots, five of which were on target. “Barcelona” had only two attempts with one shot – an assist. For the guests, that was the only shot on target. They hit two more times in the second half, but inaccurately. And Monaco added eight more shots, three of which were on target.
The substitution decisions also raise questions. Monaco tried several times during the match to actively rebuild and change the formation, trying to break through to the opponent. At half-time, Alexander Golovin came on for Lamin Camara. Then Adi Hütter changed the game with further changes. But Flick did not make the first substitutions until the 79th minute. And this despite his team playing in the minority for a long time.
Some will say that he did not see any improvement in anyone on the bench. Even if that were the case, then a fresh player in these conditions, when your team is under pressure and with ten men, can bring more benefits, at least in terms of endurance and maintaining some acceptable result. But Flick decided to fit all five substitutions into ten minutes, which only slowed down his team. He would make five substitutions at once, instead of splitting them, constantly slowing down the development of the game, when it should have been his players who ran and saved the situation. And he did not give the players time to get a feel for each other in the updated formation. In general, strange decisions, even if the coach knows better.
