Football: Monaco return to winning ways with dominant Conference League performance

AS Monaco returned to winning ways against Freiburg in the Conference League on Thursday night (3-0) in a match that more than anything marked a welcome return to form. When Filipe Luís walked into his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, he felt the need to reintroduce himself.

"Nice to meet you," he told the auditorium up in La Turbie. We hadn't seen this version of Luís, the one that had to front up to the media after a defeat.

He was unchanged, as he reassured us. "It is not easy for a coach when you lose, but I'm very normal after this.

We looked at what we can do better with the players," said the Brazilian. Level-headed, calm, but still demanding.

Freiburg fail to turn up in Monaco Lorient's win over the Principality club over the weekend ensured that Luís' unbeaten run would not stretch into double figures. Numerous were his frustrations with Sunday's performance at the Moustoir, but chief among them was a lack of creativity.

Issues pre-existed the trip to Brittany, but they were accentuated by a well-organised and dogged Lorient side. Returning to winning ways would not be simple.

Freiburg, like Monaco, were one of the few sides in Europe's top five divisions that had been unbeaten going into last weekend. Like Les Monégasques, they slipped up and were looking to quickly wash away the unfamiliar flavour of defeat.

Their 850 fans turned up at the Stade Louis II; the players that they came to support did not. "We weren't up to it tonight," admitted Freiburg's manager Julian Schuster, who nonetheless bemoaned the scoreline, a little too flattering to the hosts in his eyes.

He didn't deny their superiority, however, and he couldn't. From the off, it was Monaco who did the probing.