Julio Enciso scored twice in six minutes to knock AS Monaco out of the Coupe de France. The Paraguayan's brace, sandwiched around a brief Monaco reply, settled a round-of-16 tie that the visitors entered as favourites but never truly controlled. Strasbourg won 3-1 at a rocking Stade de la Meinau and will host Stade Reims in the quarter-finals.
For Monaco, it's another domestic cup exit that hurts more than it should. PSG are already out. The path to silverware was wide open. And Sébastien Pocognoli's side walked straight into a wall in Alsace.
Seven minutes in, against the run of play
Monaco started well. They pressed high, recovered possession repeatedly, and looked the sharper side for the opening exchanges. Then Strasbourg scored with their first proper attack.
Diego Moreira drove at the Monaco defence down the right, delivered a cross that Panichelli laid off, and Martial Godo headed home in the 7th minute. It was almost unfair — Monaco had been doing all the work, but one transition and it was 1-0. The Meinau, previously a touch subdued, woke up.
The rest of the first half was open and scrappy. Panichelli should have scored twice more. Maghnes Akliouche forced a good save from Mike Penders. Denis Zakaria tested the Strasbourg keeper too. Four Monaco players — Biereth, Vanderson, Zakaria and Golovin — picked up needless bookings before the break. There was a nervousness about the visitors, an edge that felt like it would cost them.
Six minutes that decided everything
The second half is where the game broke open. Valentin Barco, suspended in Ligue 1 but available for the cup, threaded a pass through the Monaco defence. Enciso collected it, dribbled past goalkeeper Philipp Köhn, and finished with his left foot. 2-0 on 55 minutes.
Monaco responded almost instantly. Mika Biereth's shot took a deflection and crept past Penders — 2-1, and suddenly the Meinau tensed. Could the visitors find another?
They could not. Three minutes after Biereth's goal, Zakaria's poor tackle sent the ball towards Thilo Kehrer inside his own area. The German international slipped. Enciso, lurking, punished the mistake immediately with a lifted finish over Köhn. 3-1 in the 61st minute, and the tie was effectively dead.
Kehrer's slip will haunt him. It was the kind of error you don't make in a knockout match — the kind that looks even worse in slow motion. Monaco pushed afterwards, with Folarin Balogun rattling the crossbar and Simon Adingra hitting the frame of the goal too, but the damage was done.
Pocognoli had warned about Strasbourg
Before the match, the Monaco manager had spoken about the challenge awaiting his team. "Racing is an ambitious club, they invested heavily this summer, and they've been working well for the last two years," Pocognoli told Monaco Tribune. "The Cup has been announced as a major objective by the new coach. So I expect them to go all out for this ambition."
He was right. Gary O'Neil, who replaced Liam Rosenior in January and won three of his first four matches in charge, set his team up to be direct and aggressive. Strasbourg's transitions were sharp, their pressing well-timed, and Enciso was electric between the lines.
The 21-year-old Paraguayan, on loan from Brighton, now has 13 goals and 3 assists in 26 appearances this season across all competitions. "13 goals, 3 assists in 26 matches in the Strasbourg context this season — that's very tidy," one commenter on Foot Mercato noted, adding that Enciso came off a big season at Mirandes before this. He's becoming one of the stories of the French season.
A painful night for Monaco, and worse to come
Monaco's season keeps getting harder to read. They beat Rennes 4-0 on Saturday. They drew 0-0 at Juventus in the Champions League the week before. Then they come to Strasbourg and get outplayed by a mid-table Ligue 1 side. Pocognoli's team sat 10th in the league before this match, 12 points off the top four, and their domestic cup run — in a year without PSG — was supposed to be the consolation.
Monaco's sporting director Thiago Scuro had already been fielding questions from frustrated supporters. "The only thing I can give them is the truth and my commitment. I can't promise things that aren't realistic right now for Monaco," he told Foot Mercato earlier on Wednesday. February doesn't get any easier: Nice, Nantes, two legs against PSG in the Champions League play-offs, and Lens are all still on the schedule.
For Strasbourg, the mood is very different. The BlueCo-owned club last won the Coupe de France in 2001 and hasn't been past the quarter-finals since. They'll host Reims — the last Ligue 2 representative in the draw — in early March. That, for a team playing well under a new manager with a raucous home crowd behind them, looks like an opportunity they won't want to waste.
