Monaco revel in Cup success

AS Monaco FC earned a 4-1 victory against FC Sochaux-Montbéliard in the Coupe de Ligue final at the Stade de France in Paris.

Second-half dominance
Monaco, still competing for the Ligue 1 title, were unable to find a way through a solid and well-organised Sochaux defence in the first 45 minutes, but produced a impressive display after the interval to seal a convincing victory.

Early pressure
Monaco began brightly, and Shabani Nonda missed a great chance to open the scoring after 20 minutes, shooting wide under pressure from Sochaux defender Philippe Raschke. Hassan El Fakiri then went even closer to breaking the deadlock, seeing his shot cleared off the line by Jérémy Mathieu.

Further chances
Monaco captain Ludovic Giuly nearly gave his side the lead three minutes before half-time, but Teddy Richert produced an excellent save to keep his effort out before, from the resulting corner, Rafael Marquez's header was again cleared off the line, this time by Santos.

Giuly breaks through
Monaco's pressure eventually paid off eleven minutes into the second half, as Giuly finally opened the scoring with a powerful right-foot shot. Sébastien Squillaci then doubled the advantage four minutes later, heading past Richert, and it was 3-0 after 64 minutes as Nonda's shot was parried by Richert but fell kindly for Dado Prso, who tapped into an unguarded net.

Late consolation
Giuly added a fourth 13 minutes from time, lobbing the ball over Richert, before Sochaux scored a late consolation as Mickaël Isabey was fouled by Monaco's Gaël Givet inside the area and Nisa Saveljic converted the resulting penalty.