A frustrating draw. While they had managed to turn the match around at the Estádio da Luz, against a Benfica team that had looked beaten after the first quarter of an hour, the Rouge et Blanc would eventually draw in Lisbon (3-3). The outcome would see them eliminated from the Champions League, which Adi Hütter tried to analyze post-match. 🎙️

Les mots du Coach après la rencontre face à @SLBenfica 🎙️

3️⃣-3️⃣ #SLBASM pic.twitter.com/oGIAjcWbq5

— AS Monaco 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco) February 18, 2025

Good evening coach. How do you feel tonight?

I would say it is a mixture of pride and disappointment, although I would first like to congratulate Benfica for their qualification. Everyone was obviously very disappointed in the dressing room. But on the other hand, I am happy and proud of the face shown by this young team here in Lisbon. They deserved better in both games, because for me Benfica was lucky to say the least.

Only that we are guilty of not converting more chances, because there were many. And when you see this crowd here at the Estádio da Luz, that says something! But in the end we also conceded three goals, which is too many at this level of the competition. But I repeat, I am really proud of this very young team!

Do you have any regrets about this double-legged tie?

What I can say is that at this level of the Champions League, it is obvious that we made too many individual mistakes to hope to win, and it is too much against this kind of opponents. But we can learn a lot at this level of the competition, and for the youngsters it is a great experience. What I saw tonight in Lisbon makes me really proud, and it shows promise for the future!

Werent’ you lacking in experience?

For me it’s too easy to talk about experience every time. We weren’t good enough to defend, even though I think Benfica were very effective tonight. I repeat, we missed too many chances, and we can’t talk about experience, because we have a good mix in the group.

I think we surprised Benfica by playing a five-man defence with three midfielders and two forwards. We caused them a lot of problems, but we should have been more successful in front of goal. Benfica were very lucky tonight once again.

Can you speak about the matches of Ben Seghir and Akliouche in midfield?

This is the way we want to play, with young talents from our Academy. We are very proud of Eliesse, who is only 19, and Maghnes (22), who are examples of the quality of the training at La Diagonale. They were fantastic tonight at the heart of the game despite the many absences. We were missing a lot of players like Denis Zakaria, Moatasem Al-Musrati, Aleksandr Golovin who can also play as a number six, as well as Soungoutou Magassa.

BEN SEGHIR DONNE LES COMMANDES À MONACO ☄️

À souligner une super feinte d'Embolo après un très bon travail de l'excellent Maghnes Akliouche 💫#SLBASM | #UCL pic.twitter.com/tHHUl5jHX1

— CANAL+ Foot (@CanalplusFoot) February 18, 2025

I am happy with the way we have filled these gaps, with three talented young players, along with Lamine Camara who is also only 20 years old. So we played a good match, but not good enough to qualify for the next round.