By Toby Prince
Monaco defeated Valencia 2-1 on Tuesday night at the Stade Lius II in France but failed to qualify for the group stage of the Uefa Champions League after losing 3-1 in Spain last week.
Nigeria defender Elderson Echiejile scored the second goal for the host after Alvaro Negredo’s lovely chip had put the Spanish side in front early in the game and Andrea Raggi restored parity for the Ligue 1 side.
The former Braga defender found the back of the net with 15 minutes left giving the home fans some hope in the final stages.
He scrambled home a rebound from a free kick but it turned out not to be Monaco’s night despite an additional six minutes.
The La Liga side’s 4-3 aggregate victory mean Spain would have maximum representation in the competition after Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla had qualified automatically.
The draw for the group stage of the Champions league will be done on Thursday after final preliminary games on Wednesday.
Results from other games on Tuesday are:
Dinamo Zagreb 4-1 Skenderbeu Korce (agg 6-2)
Malmo 2-0 Celtic (agg 4-2)
Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-1 Fc Basel (3-3) Maccabi Tel Aviv qualify on away goals
Shakhtar Donestk 2-2 SK Rapid Vienna (agg 3-2)
Monaco, Celtic, FC Basel and Rapid Vienna now drop down to the Europa league and will find out their opponents during Friday’s draw.
