UCL Recap: Monaco Can't Overcome Benfica's Second Half Goal

Benfica and Monaco played to a scoreless first half with the visitors generating six total shots while the home side had three. In the final 45 minutes, it would be the away team that broke the scoreless deadlock.

In the 48th minute, Vangelis Pavlidis got the better of Mohammed Salisu in the box and chipped the ball just over Radosław Majecki to give Benfica the 1-0 lead.

Already trailing by a goal, the situation took a turn for the worse for the Ligue 1 McDonald's club. In the 52nd minute, Al-Musrati stepped in to argue with the officials after Álvaro Carreras had committed a foul and received a second yellow card, leaving Monaco with just 10 men on the pitch.

Monaco’s tough night continued as Vanderson picked up a yellow card for a foul, which led to his suspension for the return leg in Lisbon.

Following the disappointing result, Breel Embolo spoke with Canal+ and acknowledged that it wasn’t the ideal outcome for the team. Despite the loss, Embolo emphasized that the squad must stay positive if they want to turn around the 1-0 deficit in the final 90 minutes of the tie.

"Big disappointment, we played a good first half. We concede that goal. I’m being honest, we got a bit killed, it goes from a potential yellow card to a red card against us. There’s a second match left. It’s a lot, it’s very hard to take this defeat."

"Benfica wanted the win. We get punished on an action where Benfica’s full-back could’ve been sent off and it’s us who get the red. It’s not a good result, let’s not lie to ourselves. The return leg is still to come, we’ll stay positive."

The Stat: 9

Monaco have not won any of its last nine matches against Portuguese clubs in European competitions, recording two draws and seven defeats.

If Adi Hütter and his team want to advance to the next phase of the Champions League, they'll need to do something they haven't done in recent memory: defeat a Portuguese club in a European competition.

Photo credit: @AS_Monaco_EN

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