For the first time this century, Rouen have qualified for the round of 16 at the Coupe de France and will battle Monaco on Thursday at Stade Robert Diochon.
In the round of 32, the club from Normandy pulled off a massive upset, defeating the holders Toulouse, 12-11 on penalties, while Les Monegasques won 3-1 against Rodez.
Match preview
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It was a back-and-forth contest with numerous lead changes last month but in the end, Rouen, a third-tier French side, outlasted the defending champions after the match ended 3-3 in normal time.
That was the biggest shock in the last 32, with Les Diables Rouges only earning a promotion into the Championnat National last season.
Since that thrilling Coupe de France triumph, Maxime D'Ornano has seen his side regress, losing their last two domestic encounters, dropping them down to seventh in the table.
Coming into their match against Toulouse, Rouen had maintained consecutive clean sheets in all competitions, but they have since conceded multiple times in three successive competitive fixtures.
Rouen have not lost a round of 16 fixture at this tournament since 1985-86 when it was a two-legged affair, though they have only played in one match at this stage since that season, defeating Montagnarde 2-0 in extra time to advance into the last eight in 1998-99.
They are tied with Nancy for the second-fewest goals conceded in the Championnat National this season (16) and have posted four clean sheets in their previous six Coupe de France fixtures.
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Last month, Les Monegasques were able to exact revenge on Rodez, who surprisingly knocked them out of the third round of this competition a season ago (7-6 on penalties).
Monaco were much more decisive against them last month than they were in that shock defeat, scoring on three of their four targeted efforts, with 67% possession.
With that victory, the Principality club have advanced to at least the last 16 in four of the previous five Coupe de France campaigns and have not lost at this stage of the tournament since 2019-20 (1-0 versus Saint-Etienne).
Adi Hutter's men will enter this contest on a five-match unbeaten run away from home in all competitions, winning both of their Coupe de France fixtures this season as the visitors.
Les Monegasques have won just one of their previous four competitive matches in normal time when scoring the opening goal, while they have never been behind in a Coupe de France fixture this season.
They have lost their last two visits to Stade Robert Diochon, losing their previous away match there to Rouen in 1984-85 (2-1 in Division 1), but Monaco have never suffered a Coupe de France defeat against them, winning their previous last 16 tie in 1973-74, 6-1 on aggregate.
Team News
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Rouen will be without Ruffice Amede Kabongo, who ruptured his Achilles last month, while Adon Gomis tore his cruciate ligament and will not be available either.
We saw three changes to their starting 11 from their round of 64 to 32 match at this tournament as Sofyane Bouzamoucha, Malik Abdelmoula and Mustapha Benzia replaced Florian Deschamps, Nael Bensoula and Eldji Dia.
Bouzamoucha, Valentin Sanson and Omar Bezzekhami each netted in their round of 32 upset, while everybody except for Gabriel Suazo of Toulouse converted their spot kicks in the shootout, with Abdeljalil Sahloune scoring twice, including the winner.
Folarin Balogun is not expected to return to the Monaco fold until the middle of February because of a shoulder injury, while Caio Henrique and Breel Embolo are out with cruciate ligament tears.
There were three new faces in the Monaco starting 11 from their last 64 Coupe de France fixture to the round of 32, with Chrislain Matsima, currently on loan at Clermont, along with Edan Diop and Aleksandr Golovin replacing Soungoutou Magassa, Guillermo Maripan and Maghnes Akliouche.
A hat-trick from Wissam Ben Yedder was all Les Monegasques would need to defeat Rodez in their previous encounter, as their top goalscorer has netted four of their five Coupe de France goals this season, with Akliouche scoring the other one.
Rouen possible starting lineup:
Aggoune; Sy, Bouzamoucha, Sanson, Bassin, Mion; Bernasque, Benzia, Bezzekhami; Loppy, Benkaid
Monaco possible starting lineup:
Majecki; Salisu, Maripan, Kehrer; Vanderson, Diop, Magassa, Ouattara; Akliouche, Minamino; Ben Yedder
We say: Rouen 1-6 Monaco
As impressive as their triumph was against Toulouse, Rouen will be facing a side in Monaco that have a lot more firepower, and we do not believe they will be able to keep pace.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
