UEFA Conference League, Matchday 3, 05/11/26

AS Monaco continued their 100% winning start to their UEFA Conference League campaign with a comfortable albeit unspectacular 2-0 win over Danish side Nordsjælland on Thursday night.

On a sodden night in the Principality, fans stayed away, not lured by the bright lights of a Conference League clash against a Danish side that, like Monaco, have struggled for domestic form in recent weeks. At the Stade Louis II, Nordsjælland abandonned their principles, opting to fully sit off Les Monégasques and retreat into a low-block, much to the surprise of Filipe Luís.

Monaco ditch ‘horizontal football’ in second half

The Brazilian manager said that he didn’t like “horizontal football” but that is what the first half largely ressembled as Nordsjælland contrived to merely keep the game alive in the hopes of a smash-and-grab. Monaco struggled to break their opponents down and needed a moment of inspiration from Jordan Teze, playing at centre-back on the night, to play in Takumi Minamino. His swipe was vaguely goalwards but was dragged beyond the backpost where Mathys Detourbet was on hand to tap home his first goal since joining on loan from Manchester City.

There was more incision from the hosts after the break. They found the net twice within two minutes but strikes from Paris Brunner and Minamino were ruled out for offisde. Folarin Balogun was in a legal position when he headed towards goal but he couldn’t beat Andreas Hansen with his initial effort and then couldn’t direct his rebound on target either.

As the clock ticked away, Nordsjælland did come out to play. But their efforts did not create any chance of note and only gave Monaco the space they needed to seal the points. Minamino went close with a volley, whilst a shot across goal from substitute Matthis Abline worked Hansen into another fine save.

The former FC Nantes forward did get his goal, latching onto what would be best described as a clearance by Detourbet, gathered by Abline, who ran forty metres before finishing. “Of course it’s an assist, they all count,” joked Detourbet post-match.

‘He has to be more decisive’ – Luís on Detourbet

The ESTAC Troyes academy product described the performance as his best in a Monaco shirt, whilst Luís was also full of praise for the Manchester City loanee post-match: “I think he is a player that has this one-v-one [quality] that I like a lot. I like players who go forward, who dribble. He has that potential. Since the beginning, he has been struggling with numbers: no goals, no assists.

“We are working on that with him. He has to be more decisive, to think about stepping into the box. He is improving at that. Today, the prize was there for him. If you don’t go in the box, you don’t score goals. For me, it was important that he scored.”

A welcome goal for Detourbet and a welcome win for Monaco. They have now won all three in the Conference League and are just one of four teams to have done so in this season’s competition. The Principality club are well-placed and will now hope for an uptick in domestic form when they travel to Le Mans on Sunday in their last game before the international break.