Monaco head coach Leonardo Jardim declared his frustration after a much-changed side was soundly defeated 3-0 at Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
The Ligue 1 outfit had previously been unbeaten in the competition this season, but, with its passage to the last 16 secured, Jardim replaced nine players from Saturday's 5-0 win over Bastia.
Although an experimental line-up struggled to cope with Leverkusen's attacking verve at BayArena, the away team's boss expressed both disappointment and pride in its performance across the group stage.
"I took a risk with the team selection, but it's frustrating to lose in that manner," he told a post-match news conference. We're disappointed, but I'd like to point out that we're the only French side to top their group this season."
According to Jardim, Monaco will be hoping to avoid the reigning champions in the next stage. "All teams in the knockout stages will be difficult to beat," he said. "But perhaps the one club we don't want to face is Real Madrid."
His counterpart Roger Schmidt, meanwhile, was delighted with Leverkusen's display as it finished its Group E campaign in style through strikes from Vladlen Yurchenko, Julian Brandt and a late Morgan De Sanctis own goal following Wendell's penalty.
The Bundesliga outfit have had difficulties from the spot in recent weeks - Javier Hernandez missed from 12 yards last weekend - and had not previously beaten Monaco, leaving Schmidt happy to end both streaks.
"We've finally beaten Monaco and scored a penalty," he said. "We had more trouble with the latter. We wanted to play good football tonight and I feel we succeeded. I'm very happy with the performance."
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