This game in far-off Kharkov will be remembered for a long time at AS Monaco and there will be no heartwarming nostalgia, that’s for sure. Niko Kovac’s team had tried a lot against Shakhtar Donetsk for 120 minutes, there were chances of half a life, but in the end Kovac waved his arms on the sidelines in vain. How wicked football can be is always astonishing, but who does this knowledge help in Monte Carlo?
The German branch from the Mediterranean missed the group stage of the Champions League in a non-majestic way. Where the kings play, there is once again no room for the club from the principality. Instead, Kovac, Kevin Volland, Alexander Nübel and the former Cologne-based Ismail Jakobs are now going to the cold buffet in the Europa League thanks to the 2: 2 (0: 2) after extra time against Donetsk.
Monaco can also thank you for the abolition of the away goal rule, because the 2: 1 after 90 minutes was worthless. According to the old definition, this result would have been enough for advancement after the 0: 1 in the first leg. But that only left “Monaco’s cruel end”, as the sports newspaper said L.‘Equipe noted.
The biggest possible punchline of this game was an own goal
The collapse is one of the results of the season so far, because the Monegasque have also stumbled in the league so far: After three games, the surprise team from the previous year is penultimate. Even striker Ben Yedder’s rediscovered goal instinct didn’t help set things straight in Ukraine. Volland’s strike partner took the lead in an appealing first half with two goals (19th and 39th minute), but in the end he was also responsible for the hangover on the eve of the party.
He missed two opportunities, as did Volland, who for his part missed three or four fabulous chances – two in the 90th minute when he failed to get the ball past Shakhtar keeper Andriy Pyatov himself from one meter. The always dangerous DFB striker (who initiated the 1-0) thought that they had delivered a “great fight”. But what good is that when crucial mistakes happen at the back?
Mistake like the 1: 2 by the Brazilian Marlos, who was allowed to push the ball into the goal completely freely under Nübel (74th). Or like the one in the 116th minute: The biggest possible punchline of this game was offered by an own goal by Monaco defender Ruben Aguilar.
After a solo by Schachtjor’s youngster Mykhaylo Mudryk, a scene on the left seemed to have already been resolved, but then Aguilar forged his cross so insidiously that the ball sailed into the goal in a twirling flight over Nübel. It was the knockout blow out of absolutely nothing, because until then Kovac’s team had acted superior. His football – known from his time in Frankfurt and Munich – may not always look wonderful, but it is always beastly and physically.
He is of course aware of the goals of his oligarch club. Participation in the Champions League is actually part of the required portfolio. Those responsible (Russia’s fertilizer king Dmitrij Rybolowlew and his vice-president Oleg Petrow) have fulfilled some of the wishes of the former Bayern coach in the past 13 months. The squad remained largely unchanged, and many of the regular staff remained. And with Nübel, at least one goalkeeper came from Bayern on loan, of whom Kovac thinks a lot.
Kovac now needs better results in Monaco
But the coach can’t do anything from outside if his strikers indulge in waste. Because of this, he quarreled with the accumulated misfortune. “They didn’t even shoot our goal and somehow managed to score two goals. And we shoot 25 times and are out,” he said bitterly. But of course the lack of efficiency of his team was not hidden from him.
“We should have decided it in regular time,” said Kovac. If you look at “the total playing time of 210 minutes in both games, we dominated 190”. Admittedly, this is not a satisfactory lesson, because even in the sun-drenched location on the Côte d’Azur, football is not just a casino game. When he came in 2020, they wanted to “re-establish Monaco in Europe”, said Kovac, summarizing the traffic jam quo.
“We succeeded, but today we fatally deprived us of the Champions League.” And that is what it takes to further develop the young team and to keep well-known staff such as Volland, Gelson Martins and Ben Yedder. Missed chance, that remains the summary of this short trip to the king’s land. “Monaco has to ascribe a large part of that to itself,” criticized the newspaper Le Monde – This criticism has not yet reached the trainer Niko Kovac by name. But he should now urgently avoid further failures.