Monaco go top of Ligue 1 after Brunner fires down Marseille

It was the 3rd time in the last 4 seasons that Monaco have won their first 2 league games, and this one came with a clear attacking hero.

Match highlight

Brunner set the tone early. In a fairly subdued Stade Louis-II, the German forward opened the scoring by rising highest in the box to meet Aleksandr Golovin's cross from the right and head past Jeffrey de Lange.

Brunner nearly had a 2nd soon after too. His first close-range effort lacked accuracy, but he quickly got another chance and forced De Lange into a save.

For Marseille, it was a familiar kind of frustration away from home. They had already lost 5 of their previous 7 away league matches and, for long spells here, never looked fully settled. Amine Harit tried to spark something with an ambitious long-range effort that drifted wide, then grew into the game and helped create one of their better openings.

His pass found Angel Gomes, whose effort took a deflection and looped over.

Harit also wanted a penalty just before the break after going down under pressure from Sadibou Sane inside the box, but referee Willy Delajod was unmoved.

Substitute Keyliane Abdallah had an early chance, Gomes also got into a promising position, and there was at least a hint that Bruno Genesio's team might push Monaco back for a while.

Instead, Brunner killed the mood. The 2nd goal was the best moment of the night. He collected a long pass from Eric Dier, spun away from Geoffrey Kondogbia, beat him again, skipped beyond CJ Egan-Riley and then drilled a left-footed finish into the bottom corner.

Marseille never really recovered after that, and the night only got rougher for them when Kondogbia had to come off soon after with what looked like a hamstring injury.

Golovin saw a chip saved by De Lange, who also had to make another stop at his near post to deny Stanis Idumbo.

Marseille, by contrast, offered very little going forward. This looked nothing like the team that had thrashed Strasbourg 4-0 9 days earlier. Amine Gouiri, who scored twice in that match, had one rare opening here but was blocked from close range.

By the end, the bigger issue for Marseille was not just the result. This was their 1st run of 2 straight league defeats since August 2017, and the injury list also grew with Tochukwu Nnadi and Angel Gomes both forced off alongside Kondogbia.

For Monaco, though, it was a very different mood. They leave the weekend top of Ligue 1 with maximum points and a striker who looked impossible to ignore.