Monaco maintain pressure on Nice with defeat of 10-man Caen

Monaco went into the Christmas break trailing league-leaders Nice by just two points after they got back to winning ways with a 2-1 victory against 10-man Caen at the Stade Louis II.

Monaco were lucky not to fall behind in the 15th minute when Ivan Santini's deflected effort flew beyond Danijel Subasic before coming back off the crossbar.

Caen continued to create the better chances as a well-placed Subasic gathered Alaeddine Yahia's header from Vincent Bessat's free-kick.

With the game poised evenly at the break, Leonardo Jardim sent his Monaco side out looking for an immediate impact and that is exactly what he got.

In their first attack of the second half, Radamel Falcao took a dubious tumble under goalkeeper Mathieu Dreyer's challenge before the former Chelsea striker duly dispatched the resulting spot-kick.

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And Caen's evening took an even further turn for the worse just a few minutes later when Damien Da Silva was shown his second yellow of the game - for a challenge on youngster Kylian Mbappe.

Monaco looked to take full advantage but Caen keeper Dreyer did superbly to deny an unmarked Thomas Lemar before doing even better to keep out Mbappe who was put through on goal by Bernardo Silva's perfectly-weighted pass.

Despite their dominance, Monaco almost squandered their lead but Julien Feret waisted a glorious chance with the goal at his mercy after Subasic kept out Yann Karamoh's initial effort.

Having ridden their luck, Monaco responded and wrapped up the points on 76 minutes when Tiemoue Bakayoko, who has reportedly been drawing interest from several top clubs, was allowed time on the edge of the area to dispatch a low shot beyond Dreyer.

There was still time for 10-man Caen to grab a consolation in added time when Herve Bazile beat Subasic following a swift counter attack.