Submitted by content on Wed, 06/16/2021 - 10:40
Veteran AS Monaco midfielder Cesc Fabregas was the star of the show as he provided two assists to help his team recover from the setback of conceding the first goal against lowly Rumilly-Vallieres in their French Cup semi-final tie.
Rumilly-Vallieres are in the Championnat National 2 league and their league games have been cancelled since the end of February. The minnows had not played since beating Toulouse in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup to book a last four meeting with Ligue 1 challengers AS Monaco.
Lowly Rumilly-Vallieres didn't show signs of rustiness from not playing for several weeks after they took the lead through a fine strike from Alexis Peuget on 20 minutes. He capitalised on the mistake from Monaco fullback Djibril Sidibe. Rumilly-Vallieres were rewarded for the bright start against their more established opponents.
It took a while for Monaco to settle into the game and once they did, they had too much quality for their opponents with Cesc Fabregas pulling the strings in midfield. It must be pointed out they had a help with the equaliser after Arthur Bozon inadvertently scored an own goal on 27 minutes. From that point, it was Monaco all till the end of the game.
Aurelien Tchouameni has impressed in the Monaco midfield and the young Frenchman edged Monaco in front for the first time in the game with a powerful header five minutes after his team got back into the game.
Wissem Ben Yedder was the recipient of the third goal for Monaco off the assist from Cesc Fabregas before the Spaniard added a fourth goal to take the game away from Rumilly-Vallieres completely. Russian national team player Aleksandar Golovin came off the bench to wrap up the 5-1 win for his team.
The emphatic victory over Rumilly-Vallieres means that Monaco will face defending champions Paris Saint Germain (PSG) in the final of the competition on Wednesday night. PSG saw off Montpellier in their own last four tie via penalties after the two teams played out a 2-2 draw.