MONACO, April 6 (Reuters) - Monaco
coach Didier Deschamps said his team's startling success against Real Madrid on
Tuesday was brought about by forcing the Spanish favourites out of their
comfortable stride.
Real, 4-2 up from the first leg,
looked to be strolling into the Champions League semi-finals when Raul stretched
the overall lead to 5-2 with a goal after 36 minutes.
But after captain Ludovic Giuly
levelled on the night in first-half injury time Deschamps instructed his players
to apply more pressure.
"At halftime, I told them to shake
them a little bit more," said the former France captain. "We forced them into
fouls."
The tactics paid off as Fernando
Morientes, on loan from Real, made it 2-1 after 48 minutes and Giuly got his
second on the night after 66.
That was enough to send them
through on the away goals rule at 5-5, though they continued to press and hit
the woodwork twice.
Defensively, Monaco were also
impressive in the second half and kept their never during five tense minutes of
injury time.
"I think the most important thing
was to find a balance between the defence and the attack, which we failed to
reach during the first leg," said Deschamps, who now faces Chelsea in the
semi-finals after his former club beat Arsenal 2-1 at Highbury for a 3-2
aggregate. |