AS Monaco’s academy ‘proud’ despite late loss to Manchester United | OneFootball

AS Monaco’s Groupe Élite succumbed to a late defeat to Manchester United’s academy (1-2) during a meeting at Les Monégasques’ performance centre in La Turbie on Saturday.

After pulling their team out of the National 2 back in the summer of 2022, Monaco have had added freedom in constructing their calendar. As well as competing in the Premier League International Cup, the Principality club have often competed against English opposition in friendlies, as they did against Manchester United on Saturday.

Amir Ibragimov opened the scoring for Manchester United early in the second half before Sandro Bertolucci, who had only been on for a matter of seconds after replacing trialist Kevaughn Tavernier, levelled the scores. Les Monégasques’, captained by Mayssam Benama, looked set to hold on for a draw, however, Bendito Mantato netted a late winner for the Red Devils.

“It’s a frustrating defeat because it doesn’t necessarily reflect how the match went,” began Sébastien Muet, who has taken over the management of the Groupe Élite since Damien Perrinelle’s integration into the first-team set-up. “As far as we’re concerned, results are important, but we prefer to focus on the way that we are playing and we are more than satisfied because I feel as though we had a very positive mindset,” continued Muet.

He added, “Training centres are about preparing our players for the top level and today we are proud and honoured to have welcomed Manchester United to our centre and even more so because we did some good things.” Muet then went on to praise the mentality of English academy sides more generally. “What I like in these young English sides is their fighting spirit, in terms of their commitment and their combativeness and the amount of runs that they make. It is valuable because they are good youth-team matches and I think that – today – the Groupe Élite is still progressing,” he said.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Photo source: AS Monaco