French league leaders AS Monaco dumped Manchester City out of the UEFA Champions League last week with a 3–1 victory at the Stade Louis II stadium. While the match might have been overshadowed by Barcelona’s extraordinary comeback against PSG, Monaco’s achievement is no mean feat.
They have progressed to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, and again have an English scalp under their belt. Monaco have been utterly dominant over English sides in European competitions and have never lost to an English side in the Champions League/European Cup knockout stages, while beating no less than four English heavyweights along the way.
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They have also been dominant in the UEFA Cup, thrashing Newcastle United 4-0 on aggregate in a famous UEFA Cup quarterfinal in 1997. The only English side to defeat Monaco in a knock-out tie have been Leeds United who beat them 3-0 at Monaco, before winning the return leg 1-0 at Elland Road during the first round of the 1995 UEFA Cup.
This list takes a look at Monaco’s exemplary Champions League knockout stage record against English clubs and the four English clubs that have felt the wrath of the French side
#1 Monaco* 6-6 Manchester City – Round of 16, 2016-17
Monaco weren’t expected to trouble Manchester City when they drew each other in the Round of 16 of this year’s Champions League. Pep Guardiola’s men seemed to underline that point when Raheem Sterling put the Citizens ahead in the 26th minute of the first leg tie at the City of Manchester Stadium. But what followed was completely unprecedented.
Monaco showed how they had beaten Tottenham twice in the group stages as they took the fight to the City half of the pitch.
Premier League reject Radamel Falcao put Monaco level and then the Principality side proceeded to take the lead twice – first through Kylian Mbappe and then through Falcao again. But City levelled twice to bring the score to 3-3. John Stones and Leroy Sane would score two more goals for City as Pep’s men finally came out 5-3 winners.
The three away goals that Monaco scored in Manchester never really came up in the discussion before the return leg as most pundits predicted the English side to progress in a canter. The fact that top scorer Falcao would be out of the return leg only added to the optimism around Manchester.
Monaco had other ideas, though.
Mbappe and Fabinho ensured that Monaco erased City’s advantage within the first 30 minutes. Sane did give City the advantage when he made it 2-1 in the 71st minute, meaning that City would progress 6-5 on aggregate if the scores remained undisturbed. But it took Monaco just five minutes to strike back.
Tiemoue Bakayoko beat Willy Cabarello for the third time on the night as Monaco regained the advantage of the tie on away goals. It stayed 3-1 till the end as Leonardo Jardim’s side rolled on to the next round.
#2 Monaco* 3-3 Arsenal – Round of 16, 2014-15
Arsene Wenger had led Monaco to the Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France titles during his time there before leaving under acrimonious circumstances. Wenger’s Arsenal would feel the full might of Monaco’s attacking prowess in the Round of 16 clash of the 2014-15 Champions League season.
Leonardo Jardim had just started his stint as Monaco manager and the Principality side featuring Dimitar Berbatov, Ricardo Carvalho and Anthony Martial exceeded his expectations when they thrashed Arsenal 3-1 at Emirates Stadium.
Having been 2-0 down in normal time, Arsenal had pulled a goal back in the first minute of injury time through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but Yannick Carrasco restored Monaco’s two-goal advantage with the vital third away goal seconds before the final whistle.
That third goal would prove to be the difference in the return leg at the Stade Louis II as Arsenal came out all guns blazing and took the lead before half-time. When Aaron Ramsey scored past Danijel Subasic for his team’s second goal in the 79th minute, all Arsenal required was one more goal to go through.
However, Monaco held firm and the match ended 3-3 on aggregate – which meant that Monaco went through courtesy of the away goals that they scored at the Emirates Stadium.
#3 Monaco 5-3 Chelsea – 2003-04 Semi-final
A new giant emerged in the English game in the 2003-04 season as Roman Abramovich’s billions made Chelsea an immediate threat in the Premier League as well as the Champions League.
Claudio Ranieri’sside had topped their Champions League group and had marched on to the semi-finals, eliminating Stuttgart and bitter rivals Arsenal along the way, and in a depleted semi-final roster involving Porto and Deportivo La Coruna, The Blues were considered as the favourites for the continental crown.
That is until they ran into Didier Deschamps' Monaco. Monaco had been largely responsible for opening up the field, eliminating mighty Real Madrid in the quarter-finals – but were still considered underdogs to a Chelsea side that featured the likes of Hernan Crespo, Juan Sebastian Veron and Eidur Gudjohnsen.
Croatian Dado Prso gave Monaco the lead in the first leg held at the Stade Louis II, but Crespo levelled things up five minutes later. Monaco were reduced to ten men eight minutes into the second half when Akis Zikos was sent off and Chelsea seemed to be salivating at the prospect of gaining the advantage in the tie.
But Les Monegasques upped the ante and very soon it felt like it was Chelsea and not Monaco who were playing with ten men. Fernando Morientes and Shabani Nonda scored two goals in five minutes and the ten men Principality side had a 3-1 lead to take to the return leg at the Bridge.
Chelsea knew that a 2-0 victory in the second leg would send them to a first ever European Cup final and they reached that scoreline within the first 45 minutes in London through Jesper Gronkjaer and Frank Lampard, but Monaco pulled one back in first-half injury time through Hugo Ibarra.
Deschamps’ men suffocated Chelsea in the second half and when Morientes scored his second goal of the tie to level the scores, Chelsea needed three more goals in under half an hour. They couldn’t manage a single one and Monaco went on to reach their first Champions League final.
The final would see Porto thrash them 3-0 which led to Abramovich hiring the Porto manager Jose Mourinho to manage Chelsea and start off the golden period in the London side’s history.
#4 Monaco* 1-1 Manchester United – 1997-98 Quarter-finals
‘Fergie’s Fledgelings’ were in full swing during the 1997-98 season as the soon to be legendary Manchester United side comprising of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and the Neville brothers launched an assault at the European Cup. Ably led by veterans Denis Irwin, Roy Keane, Peter Schmeichel and Andy Cole, United had topped a tough group comprising of Feyenoord and eventual finalists Juventus.
Monaco, coached by French legend Jean Tigana weren’t minnows either. The Principality side had two young attackers in their midst – Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet, even though both were too young to be considered as the focal point of the team.
The first leg in France had ended goalless, giving Monaco the advantage of not conceding an away goal. But all United had to do was beat Monaco at Old Trafford and they would be through.
But trouble started before the match for United as Keane, Giggs, Schmeichel and Gary Pallister were ruled out and Sir Alex Ferguson had to substitute both Paul Scholes and Gary Neville before the end of the first half owing to injuries.
Monaco had already taken the lead by then - courtesy of a Trezeguet stunner from 20 yards. In the second half, Beckham would feed Ole Gunnar Solksjaer for the equaliser, but Monaco were still ahead on away goals.
A frantic end to the game saw Beckham and Sheringham testing Fabien Barthez at one end whereas Thierry Henry brought out a fine save from Raimond van der Gouw. In the end, Monaco held firm to edge through on away goals.
Their campaign would be ended by Juventus in the semi-finals, but Monaco had proved that they could hang with the big boys of Europe.
