AS Monaco (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

Cuban heels said:
We were fucking awful ! Sat in the main stand behind Alfie. It was very weird to see stunning birds all around dripping in millions of pounds worth of diamonds .
Not like the good old Kippax days
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Interesting post. I think this forum has one or two well known but unwritten rules …
 
Gumzy97 said:
That’s now Erling fuming , Rodri pissed off at the start of the season and Bernardo calling out the team last season something isn’t right.
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Haaland is pretty visibly annoyed a lot of the time.

And yet still he's put 9 years on contract.

Some players just wear their emotions visibly. He wants to win. That's it. I guarantee there's a tense conversation between professionals in the dressing room and then it's on to next week.
 
Marvin. said:
I am not angry. As I was watching that game, I knew that Monaco would very likely equalise.
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From my text chat with my bro in Mcr!

We timestamp, because we watch different feeds and he’s usually 45secs to 1 min ahead of me. That way he doesn’t say anything about goals until I do!!
 
Dribble said:
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Fuckin gutted!!!​

I had this horrible feeling that the brick headed twat Dier would have bearing on the match. I didn't know he'd signed for Monaco until I saw the familiar former Spuds block head lining up for them.

We made a steady start to the match & were comfortably in control, when Gvardiol chipped a ball over Monaco's midfield & defence from just over the halfway line, for Haaland to latch on to. Erling completed the brilliant pass by clipping the ball over the onrushing keeper to give City a deserved lead. 0-1 City on 15 minutes.

HOWEVER, we failed to control the ball & possession after the restart, & Monaco quickly equalised 3 minutes later with a long-range beauty into the top bin past a flailing Donnarumma. 1-1.

We continued to control the game at a steady pace, but Monaco always seemed to present a menace when around our penalty area which meant they remained a counter-attacking threat.

Before half-time, Nico O'Reilly was out to the left after exchanging positions with Doku, when he looped a ball into the box for the Striking Viking to head the ball low & past their keeper to give us a deserved 1-2 lead going into the break.

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On the resumption of hostilities, Monaco visibly pushed up the pitch into our half, instead of sitting back as they had during the first half & relying on counters. This gave them a stronger foothold in the game, but we still had it under control & were presenting a major danger to their goal every time we ventured forward.

Rodders was beginning to fade. He was replaced by Nico Gonzalez on 60 minutes after a yellow card & injury scare. This changed the match even more in our favour as we stepped up the pressure, increased our pace & seemed in even more control of an effervescent Monaco.

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Reijnders was beginning to show some form again & hit the bar twice.

Foden also hit the bar, but in general Monaco's 5-4-1 formation was limiting our space out wide & effectively rendered Doku null.

We were pretty solid & comfortable in defence. I don't know what the French variant of a whippet is, but that young Monaco side had plenty of them all round, & we had to be wary of their pace on the break.

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The more I see of Gonzalez, the more I like him. He's looking more & more like a carbon copy of Rodri, which will hopefully lessen our dependence on the great man as he continues his comeback from his ACL injury.

Gonzalez was pulling the strings from deep midfield & kept the ball flowing by linking the defence & attack.

Bernardo kept control of things from the right, ably supported by Johnny Big Bollocks. Everything was steady & under our control, & then it happened!!

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Monaco won a free kick in the final 5 minutes of regulation time. They clipped the ball in, Gonzalez just got to the high ball & flicked it away with his right boot, but column head Dier stooped to head the ball, missed & collapsed on the floor as if he was the fuckin victim of a Charlie Kirk repeat!!

Nico had to go for the ball & his flick meant Dier couldn't get to it. If there was a touch, it was the faintest of touches of Dier's block head against Gonzalez's lower calf, but as we'd seen all game, the referee was awarding fouls for the slightest touch.

This is Europe, where football has become a performative, non-contact sport. I knew what was coming. After the melee between both benches, the ref took a look at the screen after VAR advice & gave the penalty.

To add insult to injury, the fuckin boulder headed cock Dier, strode forward to take the penalty & scored by sending Donnarumma the wrong way.

If the award was the other way around, I wouldn't be complaining, but UEFA seriously need to consider the entertainment ramifications of the watching public, because of referees blowing for a foul for the merest of touches.

City were guilty of acting up too, but we had to learn the hard way that this is how it is in Europe's premier football competition. If UEFA want to challenge the Premier League's viewing dominance, they seriously need to look at the non-contact sport that European football has become.

I don't blame Nico Gonzalez for the penalty award against us, because it would've been negligent of him not to go for the clearance. Gonzalez was just the unfortunate player on the end of the ever softening contact rules which are ruining football.

For his excellent 37 minute appearance & brilliant shadowing of Rodri, Nico Gonzalez is my MoTM.

Over all, City played a classic European away game against a Monaco side who may have had several players out with injury, but what they lacked in high level class, they more than made up for through relentless endeavour & pace, against a visibly superior side in Manchester City.

Tonight's performance was reminiscent of many a European away night that we've had. In this respect, I'm happy to say this game was another step in the right direction toward us returning to the City we've come to expect.

With the improved performance of Reijnders, the excellent cameo from Gonzalez & the control of the game shown by O'Reilly, we can slowly see a changing of the guard at Manchester City Football Club, which will probably take until 2027 to bear fruit imo.

We just need to remain patient & remember that because of our negligence in delaying our succession planning, we're two season behind where our squad should be.

All in all, a point away in the Champions League is nothing to be sniffed at. Roll on Brentford away!
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Bloody good post that
 
CTID1090 said:
They actually won’t, because Monaco were exhausted at that point, especially when Nico G came on. We were dominating the game. Should’ve had 3 or 4. It’s easy to bring up negatives when you don’t win, if they played bad I’d be the first to be honest about it, but they didn’t, they controlled the game and the tempo like all Pep teams do, Monaco got lucky and that shit happens all the time in the CL, that’s why it’s so damn hard to win it.
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Disagree. Monaco wasn't exhausted. They didn't have to do much. We didn't run at them. We recycled the ball endlessly. Its no longer 'death by a thousand passes". And we didn't dominate the game. We dominated possession. Those are two different things. If we dominated the game, we would have won. Monaco did not get lucky. They played exactly as they should have with the players they have. Our game was lethargic, largely monotonous and uninspiring. That's why we tied.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Doing nothing and letting Dier have a free header is riskier. How do you think Pep would react to NG saying, “Well, boss, I just gave up there because I was afraid trying to clear the ball would mean a penalty.”
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Maybe Pep would have said "if you positioned yourself properly, you wouldn't have to have raised your boot and headed the ball away?"
 
ChicagoBlue said:
I disagree. We do have quick players, but we do not have the desire to press the ball one on one, two on two, three on three, because we fear the turnover.

We played some fast stuff, and some of the interplay is outstanding, but it would be nice to see some of rondo work end in a shot every now and then, rather than turning around, passing it to one of the defenders and allowing the 5-4-1 defence to settle in.
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I'll rephrase. We do not play fast/quick. Teams that deploy a low block - they live for us passing endlessly around the box. They can do that all day. Doku is fast. Savinho has speed. Nunes and Khusanov have speed. But we don't utilize it. And we certainly didn't do it today.
 
trim.EB5E5EB1-ADBE-4315-88EA-B2B4B1F1C2ED.gifI think when other player is competing for the ball, that high boot is a foul anywhere. And therefore a penalty. I’m not surprised though that 90% of the fans insist that it is nowhere near a penalty, either truely believing or just to support the club. Fans of every club are the same, the majority of them are very subjective and I can accept that.
 
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jamielowndes said:
Haaland is pretty visibly annoyed a lot of the time.

And yet still he's put 9 years on contract.

Some players just wear their emotions visibly. He wants to win. That's it. I guarantee there's a tense conversation between professionals in the dressing room and then it's on to next week.
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The amount of times the split second pass is on to him, but instead we regurgitate the ball. Used to have players that could play him in through the eye of a needle - not currently. Reijnders is the biggest disappointment..... so far.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
It probably comes as no surprise that he’s pro-Trump. Whether on football or politics, his posts are often filled with idiocy . . . and lies.
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I disagree with his comment regarding the penalty - however this isn't the thread for suggesting that somebody's political persuasion has any bearing on their football ideology. Grow up - and please stop trying to score points on issues that are not football related. This thread is called AS Monaco (A) | CL | Post Match Thread, not BBC Question Time ffs. Stop being so obsessed with politics and you'll probably have a clearer mind for other pasttimes.
 
Mr. Shush said:
Disagree. Monaco wasn't exhausted. They didn't have to do much. We didn't run at them. We recycled the ball endlessly. Its no longer 'death by a thousand passes". And we didn't dominate the game. We dominated possession. Those are two different things. If we dominated the game, we would have won. Monaco did not get lucky. They played exactly as they should have with the players they have. Our game was lethargic, largely monotonous and uninspiring. That's why we tied.
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We tied because of a shocking decision by the referee and a cross bar wearing a Monaco jersey
 
Burtonblue said:
Hi Nico.

Only joking. Agree with a lot of what you say but wouldn’t make Gonzalez motm. He was good in a lot of what he did but not sure he should have had his foot so high in the box.
Foden was pretty good tonight as was Erling. Also liked the other Nico.
Personally don’t want to see Stones at RB especially up against a pacey winger. He didn’t look comfortable at all there.
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I thought Gonzalez was excellent. In fact, I think he performed better than Rodri in the 37 minutes he played. The reason for my MoTM award to him, is not just because of tonight's performance, it's because he's crucially lessening our reliance on Rodri during his comeback from the ACL.

Rodri's position & RB are our two biggest weaknesses, & over the last 2-3 games, Gonzalez has begun to show that he maybe the solution to one of those major positional issues we have.

Of course Haaland getting two goals would immediately make him a MoTM contender, but he'll collect enough of those if he carries on like he is for the rest of the season.

It's Gonzalez who we need to encourage to keep putting in performances like tonight's as we try to fill that huge Rodri sized hole we have when he's not playing.

As Pep said, for now, Rodders can't play every three days, so we need to look beyond him for a permanent rotation solution. Based on what I'm seeing, perhaps Nico Gonzalez is the player we need.

He's certainly putting in better performances at this stage of his City career than Rodri was...
 
CTID1090 said:
We tied because of a shocking decision by the referee and a cross bar wearing a Monaco jersey
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Come on man. Its a high boot. Dangerous play. That's a pk in the Prem 99% of the time. Nico didn't see him. Its not his fault but, its a pk.
 
not the worst but not the best performance as well.

we are a moments team at present...good at times, poor in others and we are not controlling games - this is a problem as we are poor defensively when in transition and when Khusonov aint on the pitch it shows even more .

thought the whole back four were not great today

foden in the first half was great but faded in the second.

Reijnders just simply isnt offering enough at present

Rodri looked like he was struggling for fitness at times -that will hopefully come.

Doku was ok but Sav coming on was very poor again (supposededly the left is his better side - this didnt show)
 
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