Monaco
UEFA Champions League
0 - 1
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 10:00 PM
Stade Louis II
Shakhtar
Pedrinho (19)
Preview
August 17, Monaco, Stade Louis II, 22:00
Match build-up
The Orange-and-Blacks flew to Nice on the matchday’s eve and travelled to Monaco by bus. In the evening, at the Louis II stadium, the team’s head coach Roberto De Zerbi and the striker Lassina Traore answered reporters' questions before the team held a mandatory training session. Shakhtar have not been to this stadium for 12 years – it was here that the Donetsk side took on Barcelona in the UEFA Super Cup clash on 28 August 2009.
Before the match vs AS Monaco, the vice-champions of Ukraine made it past Genk (two 2-1 wins) and claimed a domestic league win at Metalist 1925 – the 2-0 score was secured through the goals by Taras Stepanenko and Lassina Traore (with the assists provided by defenders Sergii Kryvtsov and Mykola Matviienko).
It remains to add that Shakhtar played only once specifically in the Champions League play-offs, Shakhtar played only once – they beat Austria’s Rapid Vienna on aggregate back in 2015. Earlier, only the third qualifying round games were decisive for the Miners on their way to the group stage.
Opponents
Monaco are bronze medalists in the French league last season. The third spot entitled them to starting their UCL campaign in the third qualifying round: there, the Monegasques advanced past Sparta Prague after beating the latter on aggregate: 2-0 in the Czech Republic and 3-1 at home. For more than a year now, the team has been coached by the Croat Niko Kovac. Under his leadership, the Red-Whites claimed 31 victories in 48 matches, along with 7 ties and 10 defeats.
This summer, Monaco loaned the goalkeeper Alexander Nübel from Bayern Munich and signed full contracts with the newcomers Ismail Jacobs (Cologne), Jean Lucas (Lyon) and Myron Boadu (AZ). The Serb Strahinja Pavlovic returned from loan, having appeared for only a minute for the Monegasques last season and being loaned out to Cercle Brugge in January.
AS Monaco started their domestic campaign with a 1-1 home draw vs Nantes (a goal was scored by Gelson Martins) and continued it with a 0-1 away defeat at Lorient. In both matches, Kovac's men had an overwhelming advantage in possession of the ball (about 70% of the time) and took more than a dozen shots towards the opposing goal (14 and 11).
Head-to-head record
Previously, the clubs have met in European competition back in the 1979/80 season. Back then, in the UEFA Cup Round of 64, Viktor Nosov’s Shakhtar won 2-1 in Donetsk (a brace by Mikhail Sokolovskiy), with the hosts winning 2-0 in the return leg at the Stade Louis II.
Monaco Vs. Shakhtar history
Recent games
UEFA Champions League
Tue 17
•Aug 2021
•22:00
Stade Louis II
Referee: Danny Makkelie
P | TEAM | P | W | D | L | F | A | PNT |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Real | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 3 | 15 |
2 | Internazionale | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 10 |
3 | Sheriff | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 7 |
4 | Shakhtar | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 2 |