The winning streak for Philippe Eullaffroy and CF Montréal ends at two games.
The Impact went up early in Atlanta, but a mix of bad giveaways and defensive mistakes saw that lead evaporate just before and after the halftime break, as the hosts would walk to a 3-1 win at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Montréal lined up in their usual 4-3-3, with Thomas Gillier in goal, Dawid Bugaj, Efrain Morales, Brayan Vera and Luca Petrasso from right to left in a back four, Samuel Piette, Matty Longstaff and Olger Escobar in the midfield, Wiki Carmona and Iván Jaime on the wings, with Prince Owusu up top.
Coming off back-to-back home wins over the Red Bulls and NYCFC, the Bleu-blanc-noir entered this one with plenty of momentum.
They carried that into the opening portion of the game, as the Montréal press forced a turnover in the Atlanta box. Enea Mihaj played a poor pass right to the feet of Prince Owusu, who played one pass to an arriving Matty Longstaff, who finished nicely into the bottom corner past Lucas Hoyos.
ALLEZ MATTY 😍
— CF Montréal (@cfmontreal) May 3, 2026
Matty ouvre la marque à Atlanta. 👊
Longstaff gets things going against Atlanta!#CFMTL pic.twitter.com/kpJvcgK3tM
From there, the visitors backed off a bit, allowing Atlanta to have more possession while keeping the lines tight and being hard to break down. This is consistent with how Eullaffroy has set his side up in his brief time in charge and led to success in its first two tries.
Today, though, it didn't work quite as well on the road. After about 40 minutes of keeping Atlanta from doing much of anything, the hosts would break through.
It was Saba Lobjanidze who scored his first of the campaign after a pretty bit of passing through the lines. The Georgian winger found some space in the box to take a few touches and sent a shot against the momentum of Gillier, who got a hand on it but let it sneak past him.
Clock it⌚️
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) May 3, 2026
Saba pulls one back to tie the game 🫡 pic.twitter.com/41g0LtZ4cC
The goalkeeper will likely want this goal back, as the shot was low but not really into the corner, and a stronger palm likely would've kept it out.
Then, the Five Stripes would take the lead in stoppage time. After the early Atlanta gaffe, it was Montréal's turn to make an error in possession, as the ball was turned over in midfield.
Latte Lath smashes it 🤩
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) May 3, 2026
We go up to finish the half 💪 pic.twitter.com/xc0foFMTzg
Emmanuel Latte Lath got played through, and he played a really smart one-two with Aleksey Miranchuk in the box before smashing home just his second goal of the season.
That would get the game to half, with Atlanta holding a 2-1 lead and nearly 70 percent possession, really breaking through as the first half came to a close and Montréal switched off.
Just five minutes into the second half, it was another Impact mistake that went punished again.
Inverted into midfield from his normal left back post, Petrasso took too much time on the ball as Cooper Sanchez jumped him, took the ball and fed Lobjanidze, who scored his second of the evening.
So nice had to do it twice 😮💨
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) May 3, 2026
Saba puts us up 3-1 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/M6Srd3McVH
That goal held as a killer blow to Montréal's hopes, and the game really calmed down from then on. Atlanta was comfortable sitting in to defend, and they kept Montréal from creating much down the stretch, save for a couple of Owusu half-chances.
The frustration built for the visitors, and that eventually boiled over in stoppage time. After a seemingly innocuous Daniel Ríos foul, a big skirmish started, and it ended with Vera grabbing Atlanta full-back Matt Edwards by the neck and slamming him to the ground.
Vera was immediately shown red by referee Rubiel Vazquez, and that about did it for the game.
The last few minutes of stoppage time were played out, and Atlanta United picked up its second victory in two weekends against Canadian opposition. That sees them leapfrog Montréal in the Eastern conference table, though it sits the Five Stripes just in 12th in the conference.
Meanwhile, Montréal drops to 14th in the East with this loss, combined with an Orlando City win.
