The quarter-finals of the Champions League are upon us, and two French teams are involved. While the PSG project is the best-known big-money outfit representing Ligue 1, Monaco are perhaps the more interesting team. After a boatload of investment having won promotion for the 2013/14 season, issues chez Rybolovlev have led to cutbacks, and the departure of many of the big-name stars who helped them to a second-place finish – James Rodriguez to Real Madrid, Radamel Falcao to Manchester United. Monaco’s squad is still expensive, of course – but the focus is back on the homegrown and/or young talent.
After the departure of Claudio Ranieri, new boss Leonardo Jardim has overseen an impressive performance so far. Monaco won their group (with Leverkusen, Zenit and Benfica) conceding only one goal, away at Benfica, before showing that they could score as well with a 3-1 win away at Arsenal. Throughout, they always seemed to have a couple of defenders out, so the fact that they managed to keep it tight at the back was even more impressive – young right-back Almamy Toure made his first start for the club at the Emirates. He’s made four starts since, scoring one and conceding only three, including two to PSG in the Coupe de France quarter final that saw the emergency rotation at the back finally pushed too far, with a defensive line of a left-back, a 19-year-old on debut, a DM, and Toure – still only on his third start – at right-back.
More worryingly for the opposition, Monaco’s attack – which only scored four in the CL group before that triple in London – looks to be getting its collective eye in. While Bastia, Evian, Reims and Caen are certainly not of CL standard, scoring three against all of them should mean that young players such as Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, Anthony Martial, and Bernardo Silva have their tails up. And then there is always Dimitar Berbatov to factor in.
Regarding Juventus, it is a regret for all football fans, but particularly fans of French football, that Paul Pogba will be unavailable through injury. Monaco fans might care less about that – and they have Geoffrey Kondogbia to do a similar role for them, as well as captain and auxiliary centre-back Jeremy Toulalan, who may be available despite limping off against Caen at the weekend – if not, as L’Equipe are predicting, Fabinho will slide into the midfield.
The Old Lady is 12 points clear after 30 games, and have a ludicrously well-performing defence in the league, with only 15 conceded. They finished second in their group behind Atletico Madrid, but conceded only four, before rolling past a troubled Borussia Dortmund 5-1 on aggregate in the last round. Carlos Tevez has six goals in the CL, and 17 in Serie A, so it seems clear who the Monaco back-line, however it is made up, will need to keep their eyes on.
Juventus will go into this as heavy favourites, and Pirlo is back, but Monaco have spent most of the season proving that they don’t need a full squad to stay in the running, and have now been rewarded by moving into a Ligue 1 podium spot. If they can get a draw in Turin, they might just make this very interesting.
Possible XIs
Juventus: Buffon – Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Chiellini, Evra – Pirlo, Vidal, Marchisio – Pereyra – Tevez, Morata
Squad: Ogbonna, Pepe, Coman, Llorente, Barzagli, De Ceglie, Padoin, Sturaro, Storari, Matri, Rubinho, Marrone
Monaco: Subasic – Raggi, Wallace, Abdennour, Kurzawa – Fabinho, Kondogbia – Dirar, Moutinho, Ferreira Carrasco – Martial
Squad: Caillard, Stekelenburg, Carvalho, Echiejile, Silva, Toulalan, Traore, Berbatov, Germain, Matheus