Toure brace takes Monaco into French Cup last 16

Ibrahima Toure’s rich vein of form for former French giants Monaco continued on Wednesday as his double inspired the 2004 Champions League finalists to a 4-2 home win over Ligue 1 opponents Valenciennes and a place in the Last 16 of the League Cup. Ibrahima - who scored a hat-trick for Monaco in last Friday’s 4-0 demolition of another former French champion fallen on tough times Lens - scored their first and fourth goals to round off a highly satisfactory evening for the Ligue 2 leaders. Wednesday’s first game had seen Claude Puel-coached Nice beat 10-man Brest 4-2 away with Argentinian striker Dario Cvitanich scoring a brace which were his first goals for the club and inflicted Brest’s first home defeat of the campaign. “These type of games are never easy,” said Puel. “We made a good start and then tried too hard to run the show.”