Lille-Monaco: Giroud at home, Akliouche's failures... The highs and lows

TOPS

Giroud is eternal

The love story between Lille and Olivier Giroud could hardly have gotten off to a better start. Having already scored on Matchday 1 in Brest (3-3), the new LOSC striker delivered this time for his new fans, scoring the winning goal for the northerners in added time (1-0) . With a perfect sequence of moves and a pivot shot under the bar, the 2018 world champion gradually gained the upper hand over the Monaco defense. And confirmed, despite his late penalty miss, that he had lost none of his talent in the box, despite a more than mixed spell in Los Angeles. " I needed to finish with a French touch, to get back to my roots ," explained the player, who scored his 350th professional goal, on Ligue 1+ . Ligue 1 defenses have been warned...

Skip the ad

A forced choice. But a decisive one. To compensate for Mukau's injury during the second half, Bruno Genesio took a risk and introduced Matias Fernandez-Pardo. The 20-year-old immediately brought his liveliness to the wings. He provided Giroud with an assist and also caused the Lille striker to miss the penalty in the dying seconds of the game. This should have scored many points in the mind of his coach.

FLOPS

ASM's Horrible Second Half

Second matchday and already a defeat for the Principality club. Ineffective but interesting in certain sequences in the first half, the Monegasques completely lost the plot after the break. Deprived of the ball, Adi Hütter's men retreated and were never able to threaten on the counterattack. The Austrian coach's attacking coaching didn't have the desired effect. Quite the opposite, in fact. And after suffering Lille's control, ASM was finally punished in added time. A big warning, as the season has only just begun.

Akliouche's failures

The symbol of Monaco's ineffectiveness in the first half. Excellent during the pre-season and a scorer against Le Havre on the opening day (3-1), Maghnes Akliouche had a terrible evening. And displayed a very uncharacteristic lack of finishing. First, the author of a shot that was too crushed in the box (8th), he then lacked poise in front of Özer (18th), before missing the target with a shot that wasn't curled enough (40th). Three very poorly taken chances, before disappearing from circulation in the second half.

In search of a new goalkeeper this season, ASM finally set their sights on the experienced Lukas Hradecky. The 34-year-old Finnish goalkeeper, who had a trouble-free debut against Le Havre, didn't exactly reassure. Rarely called upon in front of his line, he finally gave in to Giroud, on the Dogues' only shot on target. Inconclusive, the former Bayer Leverkusen player gave himself a scare with two off-time aerial exits in the first half and missed the mark several times by extending his kicking play.