GOAL 

Valencia dumped Monaco out of this season's Champions League despite losing 2-1 at the Stade Louis II on Tuesday, with the Spaniards progressing to the group stage 4-3 on aggregate.

With Los Che having triumphed 3-1 at Mestalla last week, Alvaro Negredo looked to have put the outcome beyond all doubt when he found the back of the net after just four minutes of play in the principality with a sublime chipped effort.

However, Andrea Raggi promptly equalised for the hosts, who then set up a grandstand finish when Elderson Echiejile netted with just a quarter of an hour remaining. Valencia, though, held firm to take their place in Thursday's draw for the group stage.

Nuno's side had finished the stronger of the two in last week's first leg at Mestalla, with Sofiane Feghouli giving the Liga outfit a 3-1 advantage with his 86th-minute strike.

Valencia effectively picked up where they had left off in Spain, dominating from the very first whistle at the Stade Louis II. Indeed, Danijel Subasic has already made one sensational save with his feet to keep out Shkodran Mustafi's close-range header from a corner by the time Valencia broke the deadlock just four minutes in.

Monaco only had themselves to blame, or more accurately, Fabinho, who blindly passed the ball straight to Negredo. However, what followed was utterly sublime, with the former Manchester City striker advancing into the area before catching Subasic completely by surprise by dinking the ball over him with a wonderfully disguised swing of his left foot.

Negredo could - and perhaps should - have struck again moments later when Rodrigo found him unmarked in the area but this time the Spain international fired wastefully over the bar.

A second Valencia goal would have well and truly killed the tie as a contest but, as it was, Monaco gave themselves a lifeline when Raggi turned smartly in the area and found the bottom right corner with a low strike, after Mathew Ryan had failed dismally to claim a cross.

The equaliser unsurprisingly lifted Monaco, who took the game to their visitors for the remainder of the half, but Valencia continued to a threat at set-pieces, with Dani Parejo heading wide from a corner when the captain really should have scored.

Needing two goals just to force extra-time, Monaco continued to press after the interval - but to little effect, with Valencia coping comfortably with everything that Leonardo Jardim's men could throw at them. However, with just 15 minutes remaining, the home side were once again gifted a lifeline by Ryan.

The Australian goalkeeper failed to deal with an in-swinging free kick from wide on the left winning, succeeding in only palming the cross in the direction of the onrushing Guido Carrillo, with the ball then dropping fortuitously at the feet of Elderson, who lashed it home at the back post.

Monaco poured forward in the closing stages but Ryan went some way towards atoning for his earlier errors by keeping out an awkwardly bouncing, long-range effort from Thomas Lemar to see Valencia through.