Folarin Balogun missed two penalties in his first Monaco start of the season in the 12th and 56st minutes before Boga’s 91st minute strike handed Nice a stoppage-time winner to go top of Ligue 1 on Friday.
Folarin first effort was awarded when Jordan Lotomba brought down Aleksandr Golovin, while the second spot-kick, which came after Morgan Sanson was penalised for a foul on Takumi Minamino, was again saved by the Nice Polish goalkeeper Marcin Bulka.
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It was a miserable first start for US international striker Balogun who left Arsenal for Monaco in the summer on a 30-million-euro transfer.
“He was unlucky. He is frustrated. We’re going to help him bounce back – we win together and we lose together,” said Monaco coach Adi Hutter.
Balogun, who had scored off the bench in last week’s 2-2 draw with Lorient, was eventually replaced by Wissam Ben Yedder, a penalty-taking specialist.
“I’m not going to justify myself every time Ben Yedder or Balogun plays. Balogun was very good on the pitch in the game tonight,” Hutter said.
One week after stunning champions PSG at the Parc des Princes 3-2, Nice claimed the three points again when Jeremie Boga slalomed through the Monaco defence to score as Francesco Farioli’s team continued an undefeated start to the season.
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“We were very lucky. It’s very rare to win after having conceded two penalties that were then saved,” Nice coach Farioli admitted.
Nice leapfrogged previously unbeaten Monaco to take the top spot by one point after a third win in six games.
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