Monaco centre-back Aymen Abdennour has attempted to spur on his team-mates, to turn their disappointment from crashing out of this season's UEFA Champions League into Ligue 1 success, so they can qualify for next season's competition. Leonardo Jardim's side were eliminated from Europe last night following a 0-0 draw (1-0 on aggregate) with the Italian giants at the Stade Louis II.
In their domestic campaign, Monaco are sitting in third place, two points ahead of Marseille in fourth and six points behind Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain at the top of the table. Abdennour had this to say to French newspaper L'Equipe: "It was a great atmosphere but, unfortunately, we were not able to get the necessary goal or two to get anything from the tie. It was a good game from us - technically and tactically - and overall it was a great run in the Champions League this season and I hope we can qualify for this competition again next season so we can do even better."
A penalty shout was controversially turned away by the referee as Geoffrey Kondogbia was fouled inside the area, but Abdennour was eager to avoid confrontation over the incident, despite Arturo Vidal's goal in the first leg stemming from a dubious penalty-kick decision. He stated: "I don't want to talk about the refereeing performance, it was our job to reach the semi-finals. Now we must focus on Ligue 1 to try and win the last five games to finish in at least third place."