AS Monaco ended its preseason on Friday evening with a 1-2 defeat against Inter Milan at the Stade Louis-II, despite having opened the scoring early on and despite having a numerical advantage for nearly an hour.

 

 

Monaco ended their preseason with a 1-2 defeat against Inter Milan this Friday evening at the Stade Louis-II. Losing to the last Champions League finalist is nothing to be ashamed of, but the outcome of the match was a rather bad look for the Principality's players. Initially attractive and quickly put into orbit by a Maghnes Akliouche save in the 2nd minute, the Monegasques found themselves with a numerical advantage a good half-hour later with Hakan Calhanoglu's expulsion for a dangerous tackle on Vanderson (36th). A decision that irritated even Adi Hütter, who would have liked the Turk to be substituted so he could work against a full team.

With eleven against ten, Monaco pushed, shooting nearly 30 times on goal, their captain Denis Zakaria hit the post (62nd) but he found a way to lose. On the counterattack, Lautaro Martinez gave Thilo Kehrer a headache before seeing his shot deflected by Caio Henrique past poor Lukas Hradecky (1-1, 60th), who started only an hour after his transfer from Leverkusen was made official. The Finnish goalkeeper would concede another goal late in the match, following a loss of the ball by Kehrer who took advantage of Ange-Yoan Bonny (1-2, 80th). A strange baptism for a player who must put an end to the curse of goalkeepers on the Rock.

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On the Italian side, Frenchmen Benjamin Pavard and Marcus Thuram were both starters and came off in the 66th minute.

Monaco's eleven

Hradecky - Vanderson (Teze, 65th), Singo, Kehrer, Caio Henrique (Ouattara, 78th) - Akliouche, Camara (Magassa, 78th), Zakaria (A. Bamba, 65th), Ben Seghir (Golovine, 65th) - Biereth (Embolo, 78th), Ilenikhena (Brunner, 65th)