Monaco manager, Niko Kovac has admitted the difficulty in France’s topflight league, Ligue 1, saying that no team should be underrated in the league.
The fourth-placed Ligue 1 club grabbed a narrow win-4-3- away from home against Nimes. Aleksandr Golovin was the man of the hour as he bagged a treble for the Monegasques before Kevin Volland spurred the team to victory. This victory is their seventh in a row.
Nimes’s goal scorers-Lucas Deaux, Zinedine Ferhart, and Niclas Eliasson- best were not enough against their opponent as the Pascal Plancque led side could not settle for a stalemate.
The German said he did not expect an easier play from a difficult team-Nimes- today.
“Not at all, well not for me. Everyone saw us winning easily, but I want you to remember that I said we were going to face a difficult team to play against.” He said at a post-match conference.
“I have played a lot of matches like this, I told my players and at the press conference that no Ligue 1 team is easy to play against, especially when they are fighting for survival,” Niko Kovac added.
He lauded the efforts of Golovin when asked the progress report of the players who were paraded in the match against Nimes. He said their opponents were in quest of surviving the league, but they must not stop winning matches.
“We can think about this in two ways. The first is, on the one hand, that collectively we may have been deceived by thinking that it was going to be a little easier than expected.”
“Nîmes are playing for survival and were winning more and more duels as the minutes passed. Conversely, were under pressure, until halftime in any case. Things were eased by a very good performance from Aleksandr Golovin” he said.
“He’s a fantastic player, I’m very happy with the victory and for him. It was his first start in a while; he’s a top player. It is true that he has an incredible quality to his shooting, but also in his passing game. He’s the man of the match, there’s no doubt about it.” He spoke well of Golovin.
The French club is six points below Lille, they will be playing Grenoble Foot 38 next Wednesday as they play Lorient four days later.
