Serie A newcomers Monza earned a shock 2-1 friendly victory away to Ligue 1 giants Olympique Lyonnais with Dany Mota Carvalho and Gianluca Caprari on target, but more importantly Pablo Mari’s comeback after being stabbed.

Raffaele Palladino’s team have made a habit of upsetting giants in their debut Serie A season and are now doing the same across the Alps at the Groupama Stadium.

Carlos Augusto saw his strike parried into the path of Dany Mota Carvalho to open the scoring and it was no less than they deserved after a confident first half.

The Lyon defence looked ragged and was taken by surprise again with Caprari made it 2-0.

The hosts did get one back in stoppages with Castello Lukeba on a corner kick, but also lost Malo Gusto and Henrique to injury.

More importantly than the victory was the return to the field of Pablo Mari, the defender on loan from Arsenal who had been out of action since he was stabbed in the back and shoulder during a supermarket attack that left several people injured and one dead on October 27.

He was not expected to play again until February, but has made a rapid recovery from his wounds and came on here at the 78th minute.

Lyon 1-2 Monza

Dany Mota 25 (M), Caprari 64 (M), Lukeba 91 (L)

Lyon: Lopes; Henrique (Laaziri 73), Lukeba, Diomande, Gusto (Da Silva 54), Thiago Mendes (Lepenant 66), Caqueret (Reine-Adelaide 66), Tolisso (Faivre 66), Aouar (Cherki 66), Dembele (Tete 66), Lacazette (Toko Ekambi 66)

Monza: Di Gregorio; Marlon (Carboni 78), Caldirola (Pablo Mari 78), Izzo (Antov 72); Donati (D’Alessandro 78), Rovella, Pessina, Carlos Augusto; Ciurria (Machin 78), Dany Mota (Gytkjaer 72), Petagna (Caprari 61)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tickets Kit Collector