Though still reeling from a 3-0 loss to Lens last time out, Philippe Clement’s men appeared to understand what was at stake early on, as Edan Diop forced Benjamin Lecomte into a reflex save and Youssouf Fofana fired narrowly wide.
For all their efforts, however, Les Monegasques failed to translate their superiority into an actual lead, allowing Montpellier to gradually grow into the game. Arnaud Nordin was the visitors’ chief attacking threat, forcing Alexander Nubel into a save before putting an effort beyond the post.
Nordin eventually made his perseverance count shortly before the half-hour mark, slaloming past two defenders and curling a shot past Nubel.
The visitors were starting to enjoy themselves now, and almost doubled their lead as the interval beckoned, but Elye Wahi failed to find the target after being played in by Nordin. When it came, the half-time whistle was a relief for Monaco.
Almost immediately after the restart, they almost went level with talismanic captain Wissam Ben Yedder denied only by a Lecomte stop, but the change in momentum was all too fleeting.
As Monaco pushed forward in search of an equaliser, Michael Der Zakarian’s side made the home side pay for their defensive openness in the 65th minute. Wahi was the architect, playing a neat backheel to Faitout Maouassa, who buried a drive into the bottom corner.
Star man Nordin added a deserved third with just under 20 minutes left on the clock, producing another pinpoint left-footed shot to end the match as a contest. Substitute Stephy Mavididi completed the scoring with a well-hit drive just eight minutes later.
The visitors are now 11 points above the relegation zone with five games left to play, and can start to look forward to next season in a more relaxed manner. Monaco’s top-tier status has never been in doubt this campaign, but a spate of seven unanswered goals conceded across their last two games have now all but ended their hopes of a top-three finish, with third-placed Lens now possessing a game in hand on top of a five-point lead.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Arnaud Nordin (Montpellier HSC)
