AS Monaco vs. Bern Young Boys

There are two big football teams playing on the Cote d'Azur. There is OGC Nice, who play at the brand-new, futuristic-looking Allianz Riviera stadium, who in spite of a rather average team (they finished in 11th position last season in the League 1), have a pretty strong following on the Cote. Then there is AS Monaco, who have a pretty good team (finishing 3rd last season, and making it to the 3rd qualifying round in the Champion's League), but they struggle to fill their 18,000 capacity stadium. For obvious reasons - Monaco only has a population of 36,000 (and no self-respecting Nicoise would go and see AS Monaco play!)

Anyway, my cousin Mikko and his family were still visiting, and since Monaco was playing Bern Young Boys for the Champion's League qualifiers, I was happy to join Mikko and his two suns to check out the game! After being predictably stuck in traffic and having some problems finding parking, we eventually made it, just in time for kick-off.

I was quite surprised to note that there was a pretty good turnup for this game, the stadium looked more than half-full. The last AS Monaco game I saw, a rather lackluster affair against Bayer Leverkusern, last Autumn, managed to draw a much smaller crowd.

This game was something else altogether. Monaco clearly outclassed Bern Young Boys, winning 4-0 in the end, after goals from Cavaleiro, Kurzawa, Martial and El Shaarawy. Top entertainment, I think my guests from Finladn enjoyed it too! We finished off by a "delicious" hamburger meal at McDonald's! (by the time we made it out of the match, we weren't exactly spoilt for choice!)