The final whistle blew at Emirates Stadium and thousands of supporters in red and white erupted. It was not the Arsenal faithful (many of whom had left the stadium) but the 2,500 AS Monaco away fans, who had just witnessed their side’s greatest achievement in the Champions League since reaching the competition’s final in 2004.
– UCL round-up: Monaco humiliate Arsenal, Bayer beat Ateltico
– #Quiz360: Win dinner for 2 at Jumeira Rotana
A decade has passed since Didier Deschamps bowed to José Mourinho’s Porto and no-one could have pictured AS Monaco playing with such authority in their first knockout game in 11 years. Leonardo Jardim’s troops were first and foremost very composed at the back, as they have so often been this season. With the best defence in Ligue 1 (19 goals conceded) and the Champions League (only one goal against, courtesy of Benfica’s Talisca) it was clear Monaco would step back and wait for the right opportunity on Wednesday, leaving Dimitar Berbatov as a lone man up front with Joao Moutinho and Anthony Martial feeding off him.
Inexperience and numerous injuries vindicated Jardim’s cautious approach and it quickly seemed that the inexperienced side here was not the away team but the hosts, taking part in the tournament for the 17th consecutive year.
The cold-blooded pragmatism of Monaco’s attacking trio came in stark contrast to Arsenal’s profligacy, which has come to be as distinctive a feature of the Gunners’ game as Monaco’s defensive solidity.
Half of AS Monaco’s starting XI was missing: Carvalho, Toulalan, Raggi, Kurzawa, Ferreira-Carrasco were all unavailable, resulting in 18-year-old Almamy Traoré being thrown in at right-back. In his fifth competitive appearance, the homegrown full-back oozed composure, constantly aware of the gameplan laid out by Jardim to diminish Arsenal’s threat.
The Portuguese coach indicated after the game he had prepared his players for an opposition lull in the second half, having observed that the Gunners can wane out of contests in the second half as they did against Tottenham in their last league defeat a fortnight ago.
The three English sides taking part in the Champions League last-16 in the past week, from Arsenal and Chelsea to Manchester City, all admittedly appeared to have specific difficulties in the second half, as though a physical issue might be at hand for players worn-out by the frenetic nature of the English Premier League.
After a promising quarter of an hour Arsenal increasingly looked devoid of ideas against a side deprived of key personnel but not of team spirit. AS Monaco adopted a patient approach, adding an extra man in central midfield with right-back Fabinho. Alongside him, Geoffrey Kondogbia produced exactly the kind of performance Arsenal have craved in crucial games this season and was eventually rewarded with the opening goal.
The 22-year-old joined Monaco from Sevilla late in the 2013 transfer window for Dh83.5 million (€20m), a low-key amount compared to the vast sums disbursed for Falcao and James Rodriguez at the time. Both Colombians left a year later amidst legitimate concerns that the Monaco project financed by Dmitry Rybolovlev was on the cusp of disruption.
HIGHLIGHTS : Los goles del partido ARSENAL vs AS MONACO – Para disfrutar!!! #ARSASM #UCL http://t.co/jmZEiMEQwi pic.twitter.com/bnGaapsKH8
— AS MONACO (@AS_Monaco) February 25, 2015
On Wednesday night, without the star Latin Americans, the self-effacing Geoffrey Kondogbia grabbed the headlines by dictating the tempo just as usual midfield anchor Toulalan would have done if fit. Paul Pogba’s partner in the France Under-20 central midfield in Les Bleus’ triumphant 2013 World Cup, Kondogbia displayed the drive and verticality that has only partially been addressed by Arsenal recently after recalling Francis Coquelin from loan.
His goal, although benefiting from a deflection off Per Mertesacker, reflected the qualities he had shown throughout the game in terms of astute risk-taking and a constant desire to burn the space ahead of him.
It was his second of the season and fifth career goal. Such was Monaco’s togetherness it genuinely looked as though goals could come from anywhere on Wednesday. This was a team playing with pride in the face of complacent opponents who perhaps thought they had drawn the weakest of the top-ranked teams from the group stage.
The second half was a demonstration of collective dominance. Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez went amiss and the Gunners’ lack of realism in front of goal was best embodied by Olivier Giroud, who left Ligue 1 in 2012 at a time when AS Monaco still languished in the depths of Ligue 2.
There were at least three clear-cut opportunities that the former Montpellier striker was reasonably expected to convert, while at the other end Berbatov got in on the act himself after a counter-attack led by Martial to double his side’s lead.
Wenger: “We had a lot of possession tonight. Our weakness was mentality – we rushed our game and we paid for it. We cannot afford that.”
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) February 25, 2015
The Bulgarian striker, booed throughout the game but applauded upon his exit, looked every bit as graceful as during his Tottenham days against his former team’s arch-rivals.
Many of the trademark features of Wenger’s Arsenal, from fluidity in transition to youthfulness in attack, had effectively been hoarded by his former side.
The late entrance of three key cogs in the ASM system (Ferreira-Carrasco, Kurzawa and Bernardo Silva) allowed Jardim’s men to score a third goal in stoppage time, putting Monaco in an advantageous position despite Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s late goal. As it stands, Arsenal will need at least three goals to progress.
Before Wednesday, Monaco had taken 12 games to concede just thrice, hinting at the size of the challenge facing Wenger when he travels to the French Riviera on March 17. His reunion with a side he successfully led for seven years and 349 games in the 1990s ended in a ‘nightmare’ while Prince Albert of Monaco ran onto the Emirates field describing his evening as ‘better than any of his dreams’.
With no star names and players putting individual brilliance aside for the benefit of team spirit, Monaco gave Arsenal and many European football observers a lesson in humility on Wednesday, far from the upstart image that they once projected and that had been forced upon them coming into the tournament.
