AS Monaco will have to eliminate in the 3rd preliminary round, whose draw was made on Monday, PSV Eindhoven, which left him some good memories, if he wants to qualify for the Champions League play-offs. The draw, carried out in Nyon at the headquarters of the European Football Confederation (UEFA), fixed the first leg at Louis-II, on August 2 or 3, with a return to Eindhoven on August 9. The Herculis athletics meeting, scheduled for August 10 in the Principality, would not have allowed ASM to play in its stadium in the return match anyway.
Meanwhile, the draw for the play-offs, the final round before the group stage, is scheduled for August 2. In the event of elimination in the third qualifying round, or in the play-offs, ASM will be transferred to the group stage of the Europa League. But this draw is a good omen: the Principality club already dominated PSV last year in the group stage of the Europa League, winning in the Netherlands (2-1), with goals from Myron Boadu then Sofiane Diop at the very end of the match (89th), before drawing (0-0) at Louis-II.
ASM also met the Phillips club in 2003-2004, for the best European season in its history, which had taken it to the C1 final, lost against FC Porto (3-0). Here again Monaco, then trained by Didier Deschamps, won in Eindhoven (2-1) before conceding a draw at the foot of the Rock (1-1), a meeting with three exclusions, Ludovic Giuly and Andreas Zikos on the Monegasque side and the Brazilian Lucius on the Dutch side.
On the other hand, the following season, PSV had eliminated Monaco in the round of 16 of the C1 (1-0, 2-0). But the history between the two clubs remains favorable to ASM. However, the Monegasque team, which fell from 2nd to 3rd place in Ligue 1 at the last minute of the season by a goal from Ignatius Ganago in Lens, must beware: they know the pitfalls of these preliminary rounds all too well. to join the group stage. ASM has already failed three times in the play-offs, the last one is fresh in its memory since it was last season, against Shakhtar Donetsk (0-1, 2-2 a.p.), after having first overcome the obstacle Sparta Prague (2-0, 3-1) in the third preliminary round.
In 2015, Monaco missed the group stage by being beaten by Valencia (3-1, 1-2), and in 2005 by Bétis Sevilla (1-0, 2-2). The princely club also managed to pass the obstacle twice. Kylian Mbappé’s Monaco beat Villarreal (2-1, 1-0) in the summer of 2016, before reaching the semi-finals against Juventus Turin (0-2, 1-2). And in 2004 he crushed Slovenian club Gorica (3-0, 6-0).
In other ‘League path’ matches, scarecrow Benfica, European champions 1961 and 1962, face winners Midtjylland (Denmark)-AEK Larnaca (Cyprus) and historic Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise, for the first time at this level, will meet Glasgow Rangers, finalists of the last Europa League. Finally, the winner of the confrontation between Dynamo kyiv and Fenerbahçe will then challenge the Austrians of Sturm Graz.
