AS Monaco has enjoyed a successful journey to the 2021 Coupe de France final in the Stade de France. In a tense final fixture of what has been an epic tournament, Monaco faced off against defending champions Paris Saint-Germain.
The match got off to a balanced start, with both sides appearing hesitant to start taking shots off. That was until the 19th minute, when Axel Disasi made a crucial defensive mistake in the face of Kylian Mbappe.
The French superstar and former Monaco man was left one-on-one with Radoslaw Majecki, replacing Lecomte in between the Principality’s posts. Rather unselfishly, Mbappe squared the ball to his incoming teammate Mauro Icardi, before the Argentine put it in the back of the open net.
The scoreline now stood at 0-1 to the Parisians, and would remain that way until the first half concluded, as only Kevin Volland posed any real threat to Paris’ Keylor Navas until then.
The second half was, unfortunately, much the same as the first. Wissam Ben Yedder tried and failed to trouble Navas, before being substituted off for Stevan Jovetiฤ at the 60th minute. The following 15 minutes would see an increased offensive effort from the red and whites, where they looked desperately close to equalising.
It would be Mbappe again who would prove instrumental in another goal, but this time the young phenom scored himself, with a well executed chip into the bottom corner of Majecki’s goal. A Virtually Assisted Referee check found that the goal was on side, and with that Paris now stood 0-2 up against Monaco at the 81st minute.
Monaco put up a fight until the very end, which arrived after four minutes of overtime. Paris would emerge as the French Cup final champions yet again, having beaten Monaco 0-2 before the final whistle.
The result is, of course, a disappointing one for Monaco’s players and fans, but the very fact that Monaco reached the tournament’s final should be commended. The Principality side suffered in the years before the arrival of Niko Kovac, but has found a magic new form since then, and will be sure to continue the fight in next year’s French Cup.
In the much nearer future though, Monaco will face off against Lens in the club’s last fixture of the 2020/21 Ligue 1 season, away, on Sunday, May 23. The Monegasques must perform well in their final match, in order to secure a place in or qualify for the Champion’s League tournament next year.
Featured image courtesy of @AS_Monaco on Twitter
