Nantes and Monaco both played their part in a blistering first half of action at the Stade de la Beaujoire. Dehmaine Tabibou fired the game’s first shot in anger against the crossbar, just moments before he was dispossessed for Monaco’s opener.
After outmuscling the Nantes midfielder, Maghnes Akliouche drove towards the byline and clipped the ball towards the back post for Mamadou Coulibaly to cushion and drive past the helpless Anthony Lopes.
Nantes were fortunate not to quickly find themselves two down, as Junior Mwanga sliced a cross onto his own crossbar, before Folarin Balogun blazed over with only the goalkeeper to beat.
Instead of doubling their advantage, Monaco were pegged back by Herba Guirassy’s first league goal of the season. The striker guided a right-foot shot past Philipp Köhn after Matthis Abline had created the chance with his skill and agility down the right flank.
The hosts were level for just over 20 minutes before Balogun restored the visitors’ advantage after Takumi Minamino had seen an effort chalked off for offside.
The former Arsenal striker timed his run to perfection to latch onto Coulibaly’s through ball and slide his composed shot under Lopes. However, just as Monaco thought they had the half-time lead, Guirassy capitalised on a glaring goalkeeping error to net his second goal with the aid of a deflection.
After making a costly mistake, Köhn would have been the most relieved man on the pitch when his side hit the front for the third time inside the opening 10 minutes of the restart.
Akliouche was given the time and space to sweep the ball home from Kassoum Ouattara’s low cross, representing his first goal since the end of August. Ouattara provided another assist for Aleksandr Golovin to side-foot a controlled shot into the net to extend his team’s advantage.
In keeping with the back-and-forth nature of the contest, Mostafa Mohamed pulled a goal back with a thumping finish before Golovin tucked home a rebound from his initial saved shot to end Nantes’ hopes of a positive result in stoppage time.
As a result, Luis Castro’s side are left languishing in 15th and just above the bottom three on goal difference despite giving Monaco a real scare in a game of the season contender.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Maghnes Akliouche (AS Monaco)