AS Monaco’s pre-season campaign came to a close with a 2-0 defeat to newly-promoted Coventry City, as the Championship champions proved clinical in transition to secure victory in Monaco’s sixth and final warm-up fixture on Friday, August 14.
Head coach Filipe Luís opted for a fresh approach at kick-off, setting his side up in an unfamiliar 4-3-3 formation, with Denis Zakaria returning to midfield alongside Lamine Camara and Anis Soubeir. The match started brightly for Monaco, with goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký producing a strong one-handed save to deny Brandon Thomas-Asante inside the first five minutes, before Mika Biereth saw his own effort saved by Carl Rushworth shortly after. Coventry made the breakthrough regardless, with Ellis Simms opening the scoring with a right-footed finish in the 12th minute.
Monaco went on to dominate possession for much of the half, with Stanis Idumbo forcing a deflected effort behind for a corner midway through the period. Despite that control, the Rouge et Blanc were caught out again just after the half-hour mark, conceding on the counter-attack as Loum Tchaouna doubled Coventry’s lead with a powerful finish in the 33rd minute. The remainder of the half dropped in intensity, with the hosts taking a two-goal cushion into the break. Monaco responded quickly after the restart, coming close through a Belgian winger’s effort that flew narrowly over the crossbar just three minutes into the second half.
Luís turned to his bench shortly after the hour mark, introducing Pape Cabral, Vanderson and Aleksandr Golovin, before making a further four changes shortly after, bringing on Flávio Nazinho, Oumar Konaté, Mamadou Coulibaly and Paris Brunner. The substitutes made an immediate impact, with a cross-shot from one of the newly introduced players deflected behind for a corner in the 76th minute. Coventry thought they had added a third from a free-kick soon after, but the effort was ruled out for offside.
That proved to be the final meaningful chance of the match, as Monaco’s pre-season campaign in England came to a close with the 2-0 defeat. Attention now turns fully to competitive action, with the first leg of Monaco’s UEFA Conference League play-off against Górnik Zabrze on Thursday at 8pm, before Ligue 1 action resumes three days later away to Le Havre on Sunday at 5:15pm.