Sports

UCL: More misery for Henry as Club Brugge thrash Monaco

Published

6 years ago

November 6, 2018

Thierry Henry ’ s Monaco crashed to an embarrassing 4 – 0 home defeat by Club Brugge on Tuesday that left the French side tumbling towards an early Champions League exit .
Giant striker Hans Vanaken scored twice , the second from the penalty spot, while Brazilian forward Wesley banged in a third as Monaco fell three goals behind in just 24 minutes .

Ruud Vormer condemned Monaco to their heaviest ever home loss in Europe as he netted a fourth with five minutes left .

Henry remains without a win in five matches since replacing Leonardo Jardim last month in his first managerial role , as Monaco ’ s winless run in the competition extended to 12 outings .

The 2017 French champions will be eliminated if Atletico Madrid beat Group A leaders Borussia Dortmund later on Tuesday .

Henry was dealt another injury blow ahead of kick- off with Russia international Aleksandr Golovin ruled out with an ankle problem , while the game came too soon for inspirational Portuguese winger Rony Lopes .

Radamel Falcao returned to captain the side after missing the reverse fixture, a 1 -1 draw on October 24 , and the Colombian went close in the first few minutes as he headed a tough chance wide at the far post.

Sofiane Diop should have fired Monaco ahead when he had just Brugge goalkeeper Evan Horvath to beat , but the US international pulled off a brilliant save to keep out the teenager ’ s powerful strike from close range .

Brugge were without a win in the Champions League group stage since 2005 , but the Belgians grabbed the lead on 12 minutes as Vanaken picked out the roof of the net from a Mats Rits cross .

It got worse for Monaco five minutes later as Antonio Barreca was whistled for a handball while attempting to block a shot from Vanaken , who smacked the resulting penalty beyond Diego Benaglio .

Passive defending allowed Wesley to blast home a third , the Brazilian picking the up ball in the channel down the left and skipping past Kamil Glik before hammering in from the edge of the area .

Horvath produced another sharp save to dig out a deflected effort from Youri Tielemans , but Henry effectively accepted the game was up when he removed Falcao for 17 – year -old Gobe Gouano on the hour.

Djibril Sidibe sent a flashing drive across the face of the Brugge goal in a rare second – half opening for the hosts , but a dreadful evening was compounded by more appalling defending to allow Vormer a fourth — after Glik had hobbled off with a groin injury .

A flick- on by Rezaei Kaveh skipped past both Tielemans and Almamy Toure to leave Vormer to scamper clear and stroke beyond Benaglio to cap Brugge ’ s first group stage victory since a 3 – 2 home defeat of Rapid Vienna in November 2005 .

( AFP )