ICARDI HITS BARCA WITH LATE BLOW
THIERRY HENRY witnessed a defensive performance that was more Monty Python than Monte Carlo as the pressure grew on the Arsenal legend.
Monaco’s hopes of staying alive in the competition were buried after three goals in the first 24 minutes.
Hans Vanaken (below) struck twice early on in the pouring rain, leaving Henry still looking for his first win as a manager.
This was his second Champions League outing as a boss.
At least the first brought their only point in the competition this season, away in Belgium last month.
This game brought nothing but humiliation for Henry.
He said: “We lost another player to injury in Kamil Glik. That’s not going to help matters as we already had 10 or 11 injured players.
“I have to be positive, otherwise what can you do? The performance of (Han-Noah) Massengo off the bench pleased me.
“We created a lot of chances. I am upset with the way we reacted to falling behind. We started well. But, once we fell behind, we stopped playing and that’s a bit worrying.”
Vanaken’s first goal, after 12 minutes, saw a Mats Rits cross find its way through three clueless defenders for the Belgian midfielder to tap in from six yards.
Five minutes later, he converted a penalty after Antonio Barreca leaped in the air to block a shot with his arm.
And just seven minutes later, a long ball from Ruud Vormer left two defenders beaten as Wesley latched on to it on the left.
By the time, he reached the edge of the box, five defenders had got goal-side, but gave him all the room he needed to rifle home a stinging shot.
It was all over as a contest and the task became one of damage-limitation and self-respect for Henry’s side.
They appeared to have salvaged some pride with a second-half clean sheet until five minutes from time when another mix-up between two defenders saw Vormer race clear on his own from 40 yards out to smash home past keeper Diego Benaglio.
Vanaken said: “It was not our best match of the four we’ve played in Group A. But we’ve won 4-0 in Monaco, so we have to be satisfied.
“Early on we had some luck, with (Ethan) Horvath saving well from (Sofiane) Diop, so we have to compliment him too. But within the first half-hour it was 3-0 and then you know it’s good already.
“We have said it before, it is important to convert your chances in the Champions League. And today we converted them all.
“Four chances, four goals, that’s the key. We saw similar at home to Dortmund and Monaco, matches we could have won. But here everything went in our favour.” MAURO ICARDI stunned Barcelona and dealt a minor blow to Tottenham when he grabbed a late point for Inter Milan in Group B.
Barca, again without the injured Lionel Messi, had to wait until seven minutes from time for the breakthrough. When it came, it was worth the wait with a quick break from their own half and Malcom finishing superbly.
But they had hardly finished celebrating when sloppy defending gifted a chance to Icardi (above), who forced the ball home three minutes from time.
Paris Saint-Germain went ahead in first-half stoppage time against Napoli in Group C when Juan Bernat found space in the box as a lone attacker in between seven defenders.
Despite stumbling, he managed to force the ball past David Ospina to put the French champions in front.
But Napoli hit back when a dreadful mistake from Thiago Silva put Jose Callejon in on the hour before Silva and Gianluigi Buffon sent him crashing to the ground.
Lorenzo Insigne (below) stepped up to fire into the corner, beating Buffon’s despairing dive.
Hector Herrera struck after two minutes to set Porto on the road to victory over Lokomotiv Moscow. Moussa Merga, Jesus Corona and Otavio also scored in a 4-1 win to keep them top of Group D.
Guido Burgstaller and Mark Uth scored for Schalke as they beat Galatasaray 2-0 in Germany to stay on Porto’s heels.
Goals from Saul Niguez and Antoine Griezmann gave Atletico Madrid a 2-0 win over Dortmund.