Champions League now a scary prospect for Monaco
By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) - Monaco had a squad with every reason to be excited about playing in the Champions League a few months ago, but the prospect now looks rather scary as they prepare to host Bayer Leverkusen in their Group C opener on Tuesday.
Since qualifying for Europe's premier club competition, the Ligue 1 side have lost coach Claudio Ranieri, who guided them to second place last season, as well as World Cup revelation James Rodriguez and fellow Colombia forward Radamel Falcao.
The team from the Mediterranean principality have been struggling to adjust, suffering three defeats in their five league outings so far, the last one on Friday when a 2-1 loss at Olympique Lyonnais left them one place off the bottom.
"We had chances but we did not convert them," said coach Leonardo Jardim.
Having Rodriguez and Falcao in his team might have helped, as it would against Leverkusen.
However, Rodriguez left for Real Madrid and Falcao joined Manchester United as Russian owner Dmitry Rybolovlev seemed to back down on his investment in the club after having spent well over 100 million euros (79.8 million pounds) last year to strengthen a squad that was relegated to Ligue 2 in 2011.
They now have to rely on the ageing Dimitar Berbatov for goals, the Bulgarian having netted twice in five games while the other forwards - Anthony Martial, Valere Germain and Lacine Traore - have yet to find the back of the net this season.
Midfielder Jeremy Toulalan, however, remains surprisingly optimistic.
"All the clubs in the group are capable of going through to the knockout stages. Like in the league, it's very important to get off to a good start," he told the club's website (www.as-fc.com).
"At the moment, this season reminds me of my last one with Malaga. The draw was fairly similar. People said we'd struggle but we ended up finishing top of our group. Although we've got a young side, we can achieve something."
Zenit St Petersburg and Benfica are the others in Group C.
Bayer Leverkusen, who got off to a solid Bundesliga start with two wins and a draw, will be without talented teenager Julian Brandt and captain Simon Rolfes, both of whom have been ruled out for several weeks with injuries.
The 3-3 draw against Werder Bremen on Friday highlighted the team's attacking spirit but also showed they were extremely vulnerable on the break.
Defender Tin Jedvaj, the Croatian teenager, is the revelation of the season so far having netted twice, including a spectacular effort in Friday's draw.
But they will be without central defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos, ruled out with a dislocated shoulder.
With two wins in the Champions League playoff round against Copenhagen and another in the German Cup first round, Leverkusen have yet to lose this season.
(Additional reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Steve Tongue)
