Adi Hutter's in-form, confident Monaco side welcome Le Havre to the Stade Louis II for a Ligue 1 clash on Sunday afternoon.

Match preview

In what was largely a fine week for French clubs in the Champions League, with three of their four representatives winning, Monaco's success was arguably the most eye-catching of any result across the competition.

An early red card to Barca's Eric Garcia helped, but ending their 100% start to the season was a real scalp for Hutter's Monaco, who have made a superb start to the campaign themselves.

Two attackers with a combined age of just 40 scored the two goals for Monaco, with George Ilenikhena netting the winner after Lamine Yamal had cancelled out Maghnes Akliouche's opener in what was a night for the young talent on display.

The fact that Eliesse Ben Seghir and Lamine Camara both starred in the Monaco XI shows what an exciting youthful squad Hutter has at his disposal.

Thursday's win extended their unbeaten start across all competition to five matches, four of which have ended in victory, after recording a 3-0 win over Auxerre in their last league outing.

Entering the weekend third, unbeaten in eight home league games, and making the best defensive start to a season in 64 years - conceding just one so far - Monaco are rightly big favourites to get the better of their upcoming opponents here.

Another reason for that favourites tag is due to the fact that Monaco have lost only two of their previous 19 matches against Le Havre in all competitions - winning 12.

In the top flight though, Le Havre have been relatively successful when making the trip to the principality, having not lost a Ligue 1 game here since 2000.

The visitors have proven to be no pushovers so far, holding out for 85 minutes against Paris Saint-Germain before caving in late on, before beating St Etienne and Auxerre.

A respectable performance last time out against Toulouse counted for nothing in the end as Didier Digard's side lost 2-0, but there were positives to take from it once again, as they ended the weekend still in the top half.

This group of Le Havre players have the opportunity to do something that no other has managed since 1953, and win three of their opening five Ligue 1 matches, but there is no doubting it will be a huge ask.

Taking anything from their next three league games will be a challenge, considering all of their opponents in that time finished in the top four last season, so if Le Havre can maintain their mid-table position after that run of games, it will be a great achievement in what has been an unforgiving start, having already faced PSG too.

Player injuries:

Monaco

1 (Goalkeeper) Radoslav Majic

37 (Central Midfielder) Edan Diop

le havre

45 (left winger) Issa Somare

20 (center) A. Lobo

possible starting lineup: