It has been a dreadful start to their 2024-25 Champions League campaign for Barcelona. They were reduced to 10 men in the opening stages, and five minutes later, they have now gone 1-0 behind.
It was Eric Garcia that was shown red for a last man challenge, following a dreadful error from Marc-Andre Ter Stegen. The German goalkeeper has now been beaten, with Maghnes Akliouche firing home the opening goal of the game for the Monegasques.
Monaco are 1-0 up against Barcelona 🔥
It's Maghnes Akliouche who opens the scoring 💥
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/I7ZWqIw0zd
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 19, 2024
MAGHNES AKLIOUCHE 🇫🇷🇩🇿🇺🇾(2002) OPENS THE SCORING WITH AN ABSOLUTE GOLAZO!!!#UCL #ChampionsLeague pic.twitter.com/LSi7iKCvxb
— Football Report (@FootballReprt) September 19, 2024
It’s a fine strike from the young midfielder, but it is also very poor defending from Barcelona, with several players failing to put a challenge in. Hansi Flick will not be happy at all with the efforts made for that goal.
It will be very difficult for Barcelona to salvage anything from this match, given that they have the goal and man disadvantage now. Their big players will need to step up to make up the deficit.