AS Monaco returned to Stade Louis-II on Thursday evening, August 6, and secured a hard-fought 1-0 win over Spanish side Getafe, capping a professional, patient performance in their fourth pre-season friendly, played in front of club president Dmitry Rybolovlev.
Head coach Filipe Luís set his side up in a 4-4-2 formation against last season’s seventh-placed La Liga club, pairing Sadibou Sané and Eric Dier at centre-back, with Aleksandr Golovin and Mathys Detourbet stationed out wide. The lineup also marked the return of Lamine Camara alongside Pape Cabral, who recently extended his contract with the club through 2031, as well as the first appearance in Monaco colours for new signing Matthis Abline.
The match opened at a high tempo, with Abline forcing an early chance inside the first five minutes, his low driven effort drifting narrowly wide. Getafe responded through Ramon Terrats, denied by a well-timed tackle from Sané before his own effort also missed the target. Getafe’s Iker Martin and Álvaro Mancha were both booked in the first half, in the 31st and 36th minutes respectively. After the mid-half cooling break, Mika Biereth teed up Abline for a second opportunity, but his powerful strike sailed over the crossbar. Abline appeared to find the net shortly after, only for the effort to be ruled out for offside following a well-timed run in behind Getafe’s defence. The first half ended goalless.
Monaco made a flurry of substitutions at the interval, bringing on Philipp Köhn, Christian Mawissa, Soufiane Benzahra and Oumar Konaté. Konaté had an immediate impact, following a driving run from Detourbet just after Golovin’s deflected free-kick had forced a corner. The decisive moment came in the 65th minute, when substitute Paris Brunner calmly converted a penalty won by Mamadou Coulibaly, his fourth goal of the pre-season, to give Monaco the lead.
Chances grew scarce as the match wore on, and Monaco were reduced to ten men in the closing stages after Mawissa was shown a red card in the 78th minute. The Rouge et Blanc held firm through a nervy finish, with Köhn called into action to punch away a deflected cross late on, but the visitors were unable to find an equaliser, handing Monaco a deserved victory.
Attention now turns to Monaco’s training camp in England, ahead of a high-profile friendly against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.