Five-star Monaco thrash Crvena Zvezda to go top of Champions League standings
Looking to extend their unbeaten start to the league phase, Monaco instantly seized control of the game and should’ve taken an early lead. Caio Henrique’s tantalising inswinging corner was met in the six-yard box by an unmarked Thilo Kehrer, but the ball bounced wide off his shoulder from close range.
Those corners continued to trouble the Red Star defence as another inswinging delivery was met in the box by Breel Embolo, whose glancing header flashed wide.
With the pressure building, the breakthrough finally came on 20 minutes when Takumi Minamino found himself in acres of space, beating the visiting defence’s offside trap to calmly slot the ball into the bottom corner.
The hosts appeared to ease off after going in front, and the Serbian side had a golden chance to equalise five minutes later when Kehrer conceded a penalty for a wild lunge on Cherif Ndiaye.
The Senegalese striker dusted himself down and coolly dispatched the resultant spot-kick to the delight of the vociferous away support.
Just when it looked like the game was drifting towards half-time at 1-1, Embolo struck for the hosts in stoppage time as he pounced on a fortunate deflection to swivel and fire a first-time volley past Marko Ilic.
The hosts came out with even more intensity after the break and struck again when Wilfried Singo took aim from 30 yards out, firing a thunderbolt into the top corner to make it 3-1 minutes after the restart.
Embolo thought he had made it four moments later when his effort was disallowed by VAR, but he played a role with 20 minutes to go as he laid it off for Minamino to fire home his second of the match.
Adi Hutter’s side weren’t done there and kept pushing for more goals, adding a fifth in the last minute of stoppage time when Maghnes Akliouche added some gloss to the scoreline.
The win sees Monaco take seven points from their opening three games, moving to the top of the league ahead of the rest of the evening’s fixtures.
Meanwhile, Red Star have now lost all three of their matches and may need to take something from their next game against Barcelona to have any hopes of advancing.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Breel Embolo (AS Monaco)