Early goal settles titanic battle at Louis IIStade Louis II, Monaco, France
Division 3C - Dinamo Zagreb visited Monaco in what had been billed as the match that could decide the season, and came away with the spoils after a hard fought encounter. In a match that lacked goals after Olexandr Buryi's 6th minute stunner, it more than made up with end to end action.
Notable absentees in Zagreb's side were veteran defensive stalwart Mihael Rajic and influential midfielder Luis González, while Monaco were sorely missing the services of Yngvar Hekonsen, their Norweigan defensive linchpin.
Both managers were forced to make enforced substitutions as a result of these suspensions. Monaco's David Sutton chose to stick with his usual 3-5-2 formation, with Hakan Gökhan Sas slotting into defence and Davide De Luigi taking his place in midfield, though in a more defensive postion. Zagreb's gaffer Jatex Cole, however, had a few tricks up his sleeves, as he switched to an adventurous 4-3-3 formation for the second consecutive match, a stark contrast to his usual more cautious 4-4-2 lineup. The Blues were helped by captain Ivo Rados' return from suspension, while Damir Milinovic took over from Rajic.
The visitors' changes made all the difference as they came out firing on all cylinders. First off the starter's block was a revitalised Ruslan Kostishin, racing onto an Arne Repvik through-ball and blasting at goal from 20 yards out. The keeper was well-beaten but the upright spurned his advances.
The home side had their hearts in their mouths as the Croatian club poured forward in droves. Even the defenders were involved and it wasn't long before something happened. Rados sidestepped a sliding challenge from Lionel Mathis, then flicked the ball up with his instep and played a cross-field square pass to a lurking Damir Milinovic, who had come deep on the attack. Sascha Rohmann ran back to cover, but he arrived seconds late as Milinovic cut back the ball precisely. Buryi outsprinted a lumbering Frantisek Bubenko before smashing his shot high into the net past a stunned Stefan Solhaug on the goal line. As the Ukranian ran off in celebration, the Monaco crowd was shocked into near-silence as many held their heads in their hands.
It could have been worse for the home team, but Solhaug managed a crisp save from Lee Song's shot in the 61st minute and two minutes later did well to turn the ball around the post one-handed after Juan Manuel Gutiérrez de Cos had done well to shake off his marker. The three Monaco defenders were obviously struggling to keep up with the high tempo of the game, and were not helped by the fact that they faced three opposition stikers with Rados' just behind them in support. However, Turkish utility man Sas was in good form, helping out his teamates when the need arose, such that Monaco managed to reach the break relatively unscathed apart from the one goal.
Monaco looked more composed after the break, winning two corners in succession, but they failed to really trouble the away team's defence. Chris Sutton was looking sharp in front of goal, and was more or less ably supported by his strike partner Johan Maes, but there was never going to be many opportunites with their midfield in disarray. Somehow, the five man midfield was being comprehensively outclassed by three players on the other side. Buryi and Iñaki are generally attacking players but they were aware enough to stay behind Rados during the latter's runs at goal and closed down the counter-attacks brlliantly. Monaco was seeing much more of the ball this time round, but Arne Repvik stood out among the Zagreb defence, clearing long balls and shadowing Sutton as the former Celtic man tried to win the game for Monaco all on his own. Sasha Sabick in the Zagreb goal was in good form too as he didn't seem top put a foot wrong the whole afternoon.
As the whistle sounded for full-time, the Zagreb players were visibly ecstatic as they celebrated a vital win, but the Monaco players were understandably devastated as they fell back to 5 points behind the leaders. It seemed Cole's trump card had worked, but Sutton was still in shock at what had happened and vowed to find out what had gone wrong. He stated that he would review the game the next day, but was of the opinion that Hekonsen's absence had hurt the team.
Dinamo coach Cole told the paper that he was delighted at the win, but stressed that "complacency is still a no-no".
"Don't even go there," he said, "I'm sure the lads will be celebrating tonight, but tomorrow it's back to training. We've got a match against A.S.K. Inter Bratislava to prepare for and we just can't let up."
Cole also expressed delight that the whole squad was available for selection, adding that the best players would get to play but said that the team had to learn to cope without captain Rados at times, before once again praising the Man of the Match for his form this season.
Rados, Repvik and Sutton made the Team of the Round for Division 3C.
In other news, Zagreb reserves will be playing Arsenal at Highbury this Thursday. The manager is expected to give the youths and fringe players a run-out.
Team Lineups
