Lacina Traore came off the bench to rescue a 1-1 draw for AS Monaco in their Europa League group opener away at Anderlecht this evening.
It was somewhat against the run of play when the home side broke the deadlock in the 11th minute. Dennis Praet's deep cross found Guillaume Gillet, who fired a volley into the net from close range.
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Monaco's response to having fallen behind was positive, yet a combination of wayward finishing and the form of Silvio Proto in the Anderlecht goal kept the Belgians in front going into the break.
In contrast to the start of the contest, Anderlecht come out for the second half on the offensive and their positivity was almost rewarded on two occasions before the hour mark.
First, midfielder Youri Tielemans dragged his low shot inches wide of the near post, before Matias Suarez's effort flew just off target with Danijel Subasic in the Monaco goal seemingly beaten.
Anderlecht's failure to double their advantage was eventually punished five minutes from time when Stephan El Shaarawy's effort was rebounded to former Everton loanee Traore, who nodded the ball in from close range to ensure that the spoils would be shared in Brussels.
Liam Apicella
