Monaco was approaching the next round of the French championship as the leader of the tournament, so greater attention was paid to the team’s match. And since PSG lost to Nice on Friday, there was a great opportunity to establish themselves at the top of the table. The opponent was quite suitable – Lorient. It is a good team, but at the same time it is missing stars from the sky.
The Russian midfielder of the Monegasques Alexander Golovin distinguished himself in the last round of Ligue 1 in the match against Lens, but since then a lot has happened: with the national team he held an open training session with children in the Arctic and also played with Qatar. And he received praise from trainer Valery Karpin, who claims that he stands out from the rest of the collections.
Some players don’t look their best when they return from international duties. They need some time to readjust to the usual way of club football. But Golovin only had 17 minutes. Alexander burst into the rival area through the center, received a pass from Yussuf Fofan, worked the ball and with his second touch sent it directly into the corner of the rival goal.
Photo source: League 1
The second truly significant moment came with the midfielder in the 66th minute of the second half. Monaco’s Austrian coach, Adi Hütter, immediately made a triple change. Wissam Ben Yedder, in particular, left the field and it turns out that no one really knows who should receive the captain’s armband. As a result, he moved to Golovin. Previously, this honor in Monaco he received only in a friendly match, but it is difficult to take into account.
Alexander Golovin: captain’s armband in Monaco? I don’t give it much importance
And just three minutes later, Alexander marked this milestone with an assist for Folarin Balogun. This precise goal should have been a winning goal for the League 1 leader. It would be nice if a Russian player who became captain of the team played a key role in such an important match. But the holiday for the guests was ruined in the eighth added minute by Romain Favre, who was once considered a great talent, but ended up settling in Lorient.
By the way, Benjamin Mendy appeared in this match for the first time after testing. However, the fans had nothing to do with it: some were happy about the point saved at the last moment, others were upset about the lost victory, but we were happy for Golovin, who once again played a very strong game.