MONACO SURVIVED A real scare before reaching the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals as a 2-0 defeat at home to Arsenal saw them advance on away goals.
Leonardo Jardim’s side had done most of the hard work in this last-16 tie in the away leg three weeks ago, leaving the Emirates Stadium with a 3-1 victory.
But they were pressed back for much of the encounter at Stade Louis II, and fell behind in the first half when Olivier Giroud swept home to give Arsenal hope.
Substitute Aaron Ramsey fired in a second with a little over 10 minutes remaining, but ultimately it was not enough for Arsene Wenger’s men.
It was a familiar story for Arsenal, who have bowed out at this stage in gallant fashion against Milan and Bayern Munich in recent years.
Wenger’s side have now exited the competition at the first knockout round in each of the last five seasons while Monaco progressed to the last eight for the first time since 2004, when they went on to reach the final.
Monaco’s ultimately successful plan to soak up wave after wave of Arsenal pressure became immediately evident, and the visitors’ first chance came as Giroud headed Hector Bellerin’s right-wing cross wide of goal.
As Arsenal continued to press forward, Laurent Koscielny struck the crossbar from close range as Monaco failed to deal with a free-kick, but the linesman’s flag was raised for offside in any event.
Giroud broke the deadlock nine minutes before the interval, smashing the ball into the roof of the net at the second attempt after his initial effort was smothered by Danijel Subasic.
Arsenal almost had a second two minutes later, but Danny Welbeck’s goalbound shot struck a prone Aymen Abdennour and squirmed wide of the right-hand post, before Alexis Sanchez tripped himself up in the penalty area, resulting in a harsh booking for diving.
In first-half stoppage time, Giroud and then Welbeck both threatened to double the visitors’ lead as Arsenal went into the break in the ascendancy.
Arsenal continued to look the more threatening after the interval and Mesut Ozil saw a free-kick tipped over by Subasic, before fizzing a half-volley wide from just inside the area.
Arsenal felt they should have had an indirect free-kick when Subasic handled Fabinho’s backpass, but the referee deemed the defender’s intervention to have been unintentional.
With 11 minutes remaining, Ramsey gave Arsenal further hope with a fine right-footed finish.
Fellow substitute Theo Walcott saw his initial shot come back off the post and when Layvin Kurzawa’s poor clearance fell straight to Ramsey, the Welshman rifled a shot low into the bottom left corner.
As Monaco wobbled, Subasic produced a fine save to claw out Sanchez’s header at the far post, his crucial intervention sending the hosts through despite a first defeat on home soil in Europe this term.
Good performance on the night obviously we’ve seen this happen before against Bayern and Ac Milan where we just didn’t do enough to go through, sometimes you need that extra bit of luck and we just didn’t get it. On a side note Sanchez could do with a couple of weeks off he was our worst player tonight but that’s clearly down to burnout.. Give the man a break before he gets a bad injury
He’s a c ^ nt
Brilliant insight Andy
Arsenal should not have been in a position where they needed a bit of luck after that brutal performance in the emirates to put themselves into tonight’s mess…same old story
Too little too late. If Arsenal had come out with that attitude in the first leg, they could have been home and dry before tonight. Monaco won’t go far either.
Monaco for the champions league it is then…… Who are you anyway?
He’s kind of a big deal. He owns many leather bound books, and his apartment smells of rich mahogany.
Arsene Wenger is a specialist in failure when it comes to the Champions League
Great original thought John. Gonna rob anymore of Mourinhos words?
Brave man slagging off Arsenal with that profile pick!!
Lose at the weekend and ye might be in the Europa league next year!
United have failed to win a champions league without fluking it.
Says John deane, who’s team arent even in the champions league.
Almost has a ring to it, doesnt it!?
They beat Benfica in style…. The other two…. Jeez…. Used up all the luck midi chlorians in the whole universe, real and fiction!
To be fair, what did John Deane say that wasn’t true? One Champions League final appearance in like 20 years? That’s failure now to be fair. All the pool fans come flooding in to try to defend him too for some reason(Or have another go at Man United) is also particularly nauseating.
What’s nauseating Dave is the fact John feels the need to come into an Arsenal article and start spouting some guff he ripped straight from Mourinho, not an original thought in his head!
My team is better than your team, no my team is better than your team, actually it’s pretty pathetic schoolyard stuff. You’re even having a go at Liverpool fans in an Arsenal article! Hilarious. Not a braincell between ye!