Monaco vs Barcelona, Champions League: Final Score 2-1, 10-man ...

Barcelona’s perfect record to begin the new season has come to an end in their European debut as the Catalans fell 2-1 to AS Monaco at the Stade Louis II in their Champions League opener on Thursday. Barça saw Eric García sent off after just 10 minutes and had to play catch-up the rest of the night, and couldn’t rescue at least a point despite competing as hard as they could with 10 men for virtually the entire game.

FIRST HALF

Hansi Flick made a surprising decision to include Eric García in the starting lineup and beef up the midfield for an European game on the road, and his choice backfired after just 10 minutes: Marc-André ter Stegen made a bad pass that put Eric in a tough spot, and the defender fouled Takumi Minamino at the edge of the box and was shown a straight red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.

Then Maghnes Akliouche scored a nice goal with his left foot to put the home team in front, and Barça were suddenly in a lot of trouble after just 15 minutes. For a while it seemed as though they’d go behind by more goals as Monaco easily found holes in the Blaugrana defense while the Catalans tried to reorganize on the fly, but a few crucial interventions by Pau Cubarsí and Iñigo Martínez and a couple of well-timed offside traps stopped the visitors from getting into further trouble.

Barça could no longer press high up the pitch and gave up on having loads of possession, and Flick’s side became very direct and tried to get the ball from back to front as soon as possible while Pedri and Marc Casadó ran around in midfield to connect the lines. Lamine Yamal also played a huge part in keeping the ball and helping the defenders get some relief, and he brought Barça back to the game with a gorgeous finish and his first career Champions League goal.

The last 15 minutes of the period were wild and chaotic: Monaco had some big chances and both teams delivered some hard tackles, and the referee had a tough time keeping control of things and needed to show some yellow cards to try and calm things down.

The halftime whistle came to end a crazy first half, with Barça down a men but still alive in the game. Would Flick be able to work his magic at the break to give his team a chance in the second half?

SECOND HALF

Barça made a good start to the final period, dropping deeper to defend closer to their goal and not allow any easy opportunities while using quick, incisive passes to create some real danger on the counter.

The visitors were in control of the action in the opening 15 minutes of the half, and Monaco only created trouble once with a shot from distance by Vanderson that required a good save from Ter Stegen.

Monaco slowly but surely regained their dominance and started looking more dangerous, however, with Adi Hütter having a positive impact with his subtitutions. And one of them put the home team in front once again: a long ball from the back found George Ilenikhena all alone with time and space to run into the box, and the striker fired it past Ter Stegen and into the net to give Monaco their second lead of the night.

Barça struggled to create any momentum in their attempt at a late comeback, and Hansi Flick didn’t have many options at the bench. Ferran Torres was the only attacker who came on when the coach made a triple substitution with 10 minutes to go, while Monaco looked comfortable and continued to press high and try to find the third goal to clinch the victory.

The hosts almost got that chance with five minutes to go as the referee pointed to the spot when Folarin Balogun went down in the box under the challenge of Iñigo Martínez, but VAR called the official to the screen and the decision was reversed as it was clear Balogun had dived.

Barça still had a small chance to rescue a late point at the death, and their best chance came when Raphinha won a free-kick at the edge of the box but sent it over the bar. Monaco managed to waste time in the dying seconds, and the final whistle came to give them all three points.

We will never know how differently the game would have played out if Ter Stegen never made the early mistake that got Eric García sent off, but Barça’s hunger, desire and organization in the last 80 minutes with 10 men shows they can still compete at a really high level under Flick.

As weird as this sounds, this was a good time and a good way to suffer their first defeat. It doesn’t really hurt the team’s confidence considering the circumstances, and it proves they are clearly on the right track and will have much better nights in Europe this season.

Monaco: Köhn; Singo, Kehrer, Salisu, Vanderson (Magassa 88’); Camara (Golovin 46’), Zakaria; Akliouche, Minamino (Balogun 70’), Ben Seghir (Henrique 70’); Embolo (Ilenikhena 59’)

Goals: Akliouche (16’), Ilenikhena (71’)

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Kounde, Cubarsí (Domínguez 79’), Iñigo, Balde (Fati 88’); Casadó, Eric; Yamal (Ferran 79’), Pedri (Torre 83’), Raphinha; Lewandowski (Martín 79’)

Goal: Yamal (28’)

Red Card: Eric (11’)