Golovin scored France’s most important goal! The Russian recalled Pavlyuchenko’s main trick
Georgy Ilyushchenko February 12, 2024, 01:13 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Monaco turned out to be stronger in the penalty shootout against Nice. And he got third place.
Nice sit comfortably behind PSG in the Ligue 1 table. The Parisians are too far away, but in the event of a home victory over Monaco, Francesco Farioli’s team would create a comfortable lead of five points over Brest and seven points about the Monegasques. The guests could not allow this to happen. And they didn’t allow it.
At the beginning of the match, Denis Zakaria managed to perform a miraculous shot from afar: Marcin Bulka is 196 cm tall, but even such a giant could not reach the ball shot from about 23 meters.
Denis Zakaria’s goal
Photo: Transmission frame
However, this was the end of Monaco’s first-half exploits: Nice took the lead. In addition, Dante, 40, became her guardian. Judging by the way he looks, he clearly won’t be done anytime soon. First, after a corner kick, the Brazilian defender shot dangerously with his foot over the goal. Secondly, from his own half, the veteran sent a throw-in into the outside area to Melven Bahr, who was brought down by Thilo Kehrer. Gaetan Laborde scored from 11 meters and Philippe Koehn jumped into the other corner.
The most dangerous episode of the half occurred in added time. Evan Gessan took the ball on the opposite half of the field, beat two opponents and shot low from the penalty line. Kyon made a save on the fall and defenders blocked the shot attempt. By the way, the only thing Alexander Golovin remembered in the first half of the match was a yellow card for tripping and disrupting the attack.
The Eaglets were much happier in the game: it is not in vain that they are higher in the table. However, in the second half they built strongly. Also, the main character of the first part, Dante, played a key role. First, the Monegasques distinguished themselves with perfect execution, taking advantage of the second opportunity: Takumi Minamino sent the ball to the center of the area, where Dante and Jean-Clair Todibo fell asleep for Zakaria. The Swiss freely scored the second goal with his head. And then Dante took down Minamino in a tough tackle. Referee Eric Vattellier watched the video replay and showed the Brazilian red. It was 54 minutes.
The Rape of Dante Bonfina
Photo: Transmission frame
It seemed that Nice was doomed to failure. Furthermore, Monaco took strong possession of the ball and did not plan to give it away. In such a situation, rules usually come to the rescue. Just the corner led to the return goal: Morgan Sanson turned and Gessan jumped higher. And then Golovin finally showed himself! Ismail Jacobs completed the Monegasque combination with a shot into the far corner. Bulka managed it, but it was already impossible to stop Sasha during the finishing move.
Goal by Alexander Golovin
Photo: Transmission frame
The teams ended up there. Guus Hiddink called Roman Pavlyuchenko a “sleeping giant”: for his ability to not stand out and still score at the most important moment. Today Golovin became the same “sleeper”: he did not shine at all and produced results.
The Russian left the field in the 80th minute. He has 40 touches of the ball, 22 accurate passes out of 27, 12 losses of possession, an inaccurate cross and a long pass, three fouls on him and one on him, in addition to one tackle and two duels won out of twelve. They haggled around him five more times. SofaScore, despite the goal, gave Sasha a fairly average score of 6.8. But this is secondary: now Monaco is in the top three and only one point behind Nice.
In the French Cup, however, the team’s performance is not so encouraging:
Golovin was the best and went first in the penalty shootout. But “Monaco” flew to the third league club!
