After Lille – Monaco (1-2) / « I took the place of Wissam Ben Yedder a bit »: Aurélien Tchouaméni is superman

This costume is rather Wissam Ben Yedder who usually wears it in Monaco when it comes to scoring goals. But the man with 21 league goals remained silent at Pierre-Mauroy. So, Tchouaméni exceeded his function to take over. « It’s my role to give the maximumhe commented at the microphone of Prime Video. I am an important player in the team like others. Today I have the chance to score two goals. I told Wissam (Ben Yedder, Ed) that I took his place a bit today. But today it’s me, the next game will be another one and that’s what makes us strong. »

« Youssouf said to me: ‘I don’t feel you…' »

In Lille, it was him. Before this victorious strike in the second period, Tchouaméni had already distinguished himself by opening the score with the left foot in the first period. Yes, from the left. « I don’t know if you saw, but I sent a first strike from the right in the gallery“, he recalled with humor. I miss a first chance with my head, I say to myself ‘good, OK…’, on the second I kick my right foot and I say to myself ‘no, it’s not good, we’ll try the left foot’. And the left foot walked. I made a good control to take the ball to the side. I remember my first pro goal, I scored it like that. Yes, this goal feels good. I worked on the strikes a lot with the coach, he told me about it. The second goal is a bit of a gift for him. »

A goal that started his game. Besides these two missed opportunities, Tchouaméni had not managed to display his usual impact in the midfield until then. « Around the 25th-30th minute, Youssouf (Fofana, Editor’s note) comes to see me and says ‘I don’t feel you’said the Monegasque community. I told him ‘yeah, I have to do better’. Afterwards he gave me a little more confidence and I was able to put out a big game. He pissed me off a bit! »

“Marseille, Rennes, Nice… They are not going to let go”

A little ? A lot, even. Tchouaméni grew in strength to, in the end, succeed in a « usual » performance in his favorite areas: he dominated the debates in the number of balls recovered, duels disputed and won, successful interceptions. His impact on recovery was already monumental, but if he also starts scoring…”It’s something I need to improve onestimated the Monegasque environment. With the coach we try to work on this, with Youssouf, we alternate, sometimes I am a little lower and he is a little higher. It depends on the turn of the match. But I’m happy to have scored these two goals, it means that I’m progressing and we have to continue. »

For Monaco, the added value is already enormous in the game while waiting for it to be in the finances as his player is coveted. But the present is the race for second place for direct qualification in the Champions League. « There are two games left, I’m not going to lie, it’s obviously a goal nowacknowledged Tchouaméni. Today we win but if next weekend we do a bad performance it will be useless. Especially with the teams we are fighting against. Marseille, Rennes, Nice… They are not going to let go. We have to stay focused on ourselves. We still have two big matches to win. If we win them, we will be well positioned so it is up to us to do the job.“And for that, Monaco can count on Tchouaméni.