The reactions of Niko Kovac and Ruben Aguilar after Brest
AS Monaco lost in Brest (2-0), this Sunday as part of the 12th matchday in Ligue 1 — read the reactions of Niko Kovac and Ruben Aguilar. It was a challenging trip for the Monegasques this Sunday in Brest. The Rouge et Blanc lost, 2-0, at the Stade Francis-Le Blé on the 12th matchday of Ligue 1, after goals from Steve Mounié (18′) and Franck Honorat (79′). It was a frustrating setback for Niko Kovac and Ruben Aguilar, and they expressed as much at a post-match press conference.
Niko, what is your feeling after this match?
Brest deserve their victory because they showed more desire than us, and that’s what you need to win, against a team that is battling for survival in Ligue 1. You can’t just get on the pitch and think that everything will be easy. Brest fought well and played their brand of football. Congratulations to them. I am not satisfied with the performance of my team. We had a lot of the ball but we didn’t show ourselves as being dangerous. We have to improve, otherwise these kinds of matches will always be difficult. The last match against Montpellier (3-1) was good, but today we were not the AS Monaco we want to be.
Playing against a low block is always challenging…
In the first half we had some good attacks, but the last pass was not good enough and we went through the middle too much. In the second half we played more on the flanks, and we had chances such as the header for Gelson Martins and the shot by Youssouf Fofana, but it was not enough to win this match.
Ruben, how do you explain this defeat?
We have had very good performances over the past month and a half, and unfortunately this afternoon’s match wasn’t to that level. It’s part of football. There are matches that you have to quickly forget and get back to work because on Thursday we have a very important match against PSV Eindhoven.
The team seemed less dangerous than in your previous matches…
We were able to find each other less often, and things were less fluid than usual in finding solutions. It’s job done to Brest too, who played a valiant match. For our part, we did not answer the call in certain areas, but we will get things going and move forward. We will have to recover physically and mentally and get back to positive ways.
