St. Etienne rescue point against short-handed Monaco

By foxsports
Published

Ricky van Wolfswinkel rescued a point as St Etienne struck back for a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw against 10-man Monaco at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Sunday.

The visitors took the lead through Jeremy Toulalan 17 minutes in and Van Wolfswinkel levelled matters just before the hour mark, while Tiemoue Bakayoko was sent off for Monaco with 20 minutes remaining.

The result leaves the hosts in sixth place in the Ligue 1 table with their opponents two spots and three points further back.

The visitors fortuitously took the lead just after the quarter-hour mark when Joao Moutinho steered the ball into Toulalan's path and the former Lyon midfielder put the ball beyond Stephane Ruffier from 20 yards with the aid of a huge Lacina Traore deflection.

Les Verts hit back straight away and Romain Hamouma escaped the visitors' defence before steering the ball beyond Daniel Subasic, but his celebrations were cut short by the linesman's flag.

Monaco should have doubled their lead shortly after the half-hour mark when Joao Moutinho's perfect cross found Valerie Germain, but the former France Under-21 international failed to find the target with his near-post header.

The visitors continued to create chances and somehow the ball managed to stay out just after the break when Traore failed to get a telling touch on Joao Moutinho's inviting free-kick from the left before the ball trickled across the goalmouth.

Nabil Dirar was next to go close for Monaco on the counter-attack but his drilled effort from outside the area was parried away by Ruffier before St Etienne levelled against the run of play.

Kevin Monnet-Paquet's ball broke Monaco's offside trap and Hamouma was allowed to run on before unselfishly squaring for Van Wolfswinkel to slide the ball into an empty net.

The principality side were reduced to 10 men with little under 20 minutes to play when Tiemoue Bakayoko was sent off for a second yellow but, despite that, the hosts failed to break down a rugged defence and Monaco escaped with a point.