This week’s player of the week award goes to Monaco’s Djibril Sidibe, whose defensive and attacking contributions played a valuable role in the side’s comfortable 4-0 win over a disjointed Dijon at Stade Louis II.
The defender played a critical role in the side’s first goal of the match as the vision of Thomas Lemar enabled him to split the Dijon defence to find Sidibe’s immaculately timed run in behind, who duly put the ball on a plate for Keita Balde to bury calmly past Reynet.
The fixture remained a tight affair for the majority of the game, in spite of the lead, until Monaco doubled their lead as Fabinho converted from the spot with 20 minutes to go.
Lopes and Glik then added late goals for the home side to add gloss to the victory.
Sidibe’s clean sheet and assist saw him earn seven points from the tie.
The assist puts him on four for the season, to add to the two league goals he’s scored and the six clean sheets he has also kept in his 18 league games – an output level that has seen him score 34 points so far this season.
It is form like this that seen Sidibe rightfully earn a spot within the French national team. Having made 14 appearances for the team since his debut in 2016, the 25-year-old will rightfully be confident of earning a spot on the plane to Russia when the team head off to this summer’s World Cup.
The Frenchman has largely made the right back spot his own since joining the club from Lille in 2016, his combination of athleticism, final third quality and tactical discipline making him arguably the perfect fit for the 4-4-2 system that Monaco have largely opted for in recent years.
The win for Monaco sees them retain the second-placed spot in the table having hit a good patch of form in which they have won four and drawn one of their last five games, though Marseille sit just one point behind them in third.
As the back end of the season looms, Monaco will rightfully be confident of earning qualification for the 2018/19 Champions League with fourth placed Lyon having suffered a significant drop in form in recent weeks.
However, the team will also be fully aware that there is still a lot of hard work to go into making this expectation a reality.
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