Ligue 2 – Ajaccio, Yahia Fofana, Valenciennes, Nîmes … the Tops and Flops of the 13th day

Another spectacular Saturday in League 2 with 23 goals scored in the nine matches of Matchday 13. The gap narrows at the top of the table with the snags of Toulouse and Sochaux, and the victories of Ajaccio and Le Havre. A Top 5 begins to emerge, while at the bottom Amiens revives and sinks Valenciennes. Place to the Tops and Flops of the J13 before Auxerre-Bastia on Monday night.

To read also >> Ligue 2 (13th day) – Sochaux misses the march, Ajaccio and Le Havre are getting closer, Amiens is waking up!

Read also >> Ligue 2 (13th day) – The video summary of Paris FC-Toulouse (2-2)

Tops

Ajaccio, quiet strength

Toulouse draw in Paris (2-2). A draw for Sochaux in front of QRM (1-1). A quiet victory for Ajaccio against the red lantern Nancy (2-0), and here is the ACA only three points behind the leader! This 13th day has caused a tightening at the top of the standings and with a double from Nouri bringing his total to 78 goals in his career in Ligue 2, the Corsican club has moved into the Top 5. Even if for the moment, “the players do not think of anything other than taking the points necessary for maintaining“, Repeated Olivier Pantaloni after the match. However, like every other year, Ajaccio will have to be reckoned with this season!

#ACAIACCIU ????⚪????⚪ pic.twitter.com/SWSKXVUPjz

— AC Ajaccio (@ACAjaccio) October 23, 2021

Yahia Fofana, the cyborg

Words fail to describe Yahia Fofana’s performances since the start of the season. Against Pau (1-0), the young goalkeeper from Le Havre stacked his 8th clean-sheet in 13 days! With six saves, he quite simply disgusted the striker of the Béarn club. No other goalkeeper has been so influential in his team’s results since the start of the season. If Le Havre is a solid 4th at the moment, it owes it largely to the exploits of Fofana. “We won points normally, but we must not take ourselves for what we are not all the same. We have to admit that we are suffering, that we are not sovereign and that it is after a lot of effort that we manage to scratch points ”, has also recalled Paul Le Guen, lucid on the defensive success which for the moment accompanies his group.

Benzia, Chahiri or Bamba: total treat!

Festival of very nice goals this Saturday, and what a treat! Let us quote in particular the overpowered free kick and in full skylight of Kader Bamba (Amiens), which energized a Picardy attack which badly needed against Valenciennes (3-0). Let us also mention the solo of Mehdi Chahiri (Caen) between three defenders of Dunkirk in the area. A raid as technical as it was effective concluded with a small bridge and a cross strike in front of Maraval (1-1). Finally, Yassine Benzia also brightened up the evening from Dijon to Grenoble with an equalizing goal (2-1 victory in the end) of a giant slalom followed by a full-scope roll. Show time!

This action ended with a goal of @Mr_Dicahiri ???? pic.twitter.com/Mst8Wkd2Yy

– MaLigue2 (@maligue2) October 23, 2021

The Flops

Valenciennes, from bad to worse

Amiens had not won since April 20, 2021 at home in the league. And guess which team was the last to lose there? Valenciennes! From a 3-1 defeat last season to that 3-0 suffered this Saturday, the Northerners confirm their status as a sick team. The series of three victories in a row already seems a long way off, and the VAFC fell back to 15th place after this slap in Picardy. However, the statistics are rather favorable to the players of Olivier Guégan. But a huge lack of offensive and then defensive efficiency penalizes this formation too much which will again have to say goodbye to Top 5 ambitions as its irregularity is incompatible with this objective.

⏱ It’s over.

Heavy defeat in Picardy.#ASCVAFC 3-0 pic.twitter.com/mH4DLhQ3a1

– Valenciennes FC ???? (@VAFC) October 23, 2021

Nîmes no longer responds

“I thought we had hit rock bottom against Ajaccio, is it deeper than rock bottom? What gives me is this impression that nothing is released. No unity, we are not a team! ”. Pascal Plancque was not there by four ways after the new big disillusion on the lawn of Guingamp (3-1) for the Crocos. It is often said that a team looks like its coach, but for the moment the former coach of Niort can no longer find the right springs and the right levers to stop this negative spiral. Nîmes has not won since the 5th day after a fanfare start, and is only three points ahead of the 19th Bastia… which plays Monday evening!

Charléty’s lawn

It was the opening shock of the 13th day on Saturday afternoon with Paris FC against the leader Toulouse. The show was at the rendezvous (2-2) with a nice suspenseful scenario and a monstrous goal from Rhys Healey at the end of the match. And we must congratulate the actors of this match because the lawn of Charléty was quite simply catastrophic. Very high, quite dry, with clods of earth… Moreover, Branco Van den Boomen must still curse the one who undoubtedly deprived him of a goal quite done at the end of the first period on a center back to the point of penalty where the ball jumped in front of his foot …

Photo @ Gérard Pierlovisi / Panoramic / Imago.

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