Monaco fired up by Falcao
Monaco boss Leonardo Jardim hailed his side’s second-half hunger after they dumped Nantes 3-1 to get their French league campaign off to a flyer.
Rony Lopes, Stevan Jovetic and Radamel Falcao scored to get last season’s French runners up off to winning ways before Emiliano Sala hit a late consolation for Nantes.
Falcao’s introduction midway through the second half vastly improved an otherwise drab encounter.
The striker linked up well with Jovetic, who set up Lopes to head in a deflected cross in 69 minutes.
The Colombian then collected a high ball near the halfway line with 10 minutes to go and flicked the ball over his head into the path of Jovetic, who fired in a cool finish.
And three minutes later, the veteran was in the thick of it once again – this time tapping in a low cross before Sala’s injury-time effort restored some pride for Miguel Cardoso’s men.
Jardim said: “In the first half we gave the ball away too much. After the break, with the changes we made, we played more offensively.
“We also took advantage of ( Nantes’) tiredness, which is always a factor at the start of the season.”
In the Netherlands, it was a disappointing start in the Eredivisie for Ajax.
Erik ten Hag’s side just managed to salvage a point thanks to Matthijs de Ligt’s effort two minutes from time after falling behind late on in a 1-1 draw with Heracles at home.
And in Portugal Vitoria Setubal kicked off their Primeira Liga campaign with a 2- 0 win against nine-man Aves.
Costinha opened Vitoria’s account in three minutes before Jhonder Cadiz added another against Aves who had Claudio Falcao shown a straight red and Jorge Fellipe also sent packing after a second yellow.