This Sunday started nicely with a very nice Breton derby between two teams, Brest and Rennes, who play nice football. The start of the match was pretty fantastic with Honorat opening the scoring very quickly, who scored in two stages after a poor dismissal from Salin. Three minutes later, Bourigeaud, very well served by Terrier, equalized. The match was then balanced, the Finistériens were not successful since Mounié touched the amounts twice and the Rouge et Noir forced the decision on a dubious penalty converted by Grenier. This is the second time in a few games that the former Lyonnais has scored the winning goal. When you remember the way he was treated and see that he is a new starter in this team, that says a lot about his strength of character and I’m really happy for him.
At 3 p.m., a team from Saint-Etienne decimated by the Covid was beaten in Strasbourg. For those who wonder why this match took place and not Lorient-Dijon, it is simply a problem of numbers: the Hakes counted twelve cases of contamination within their workforce, against only eight in Sainté. The limit for the match to be postponed is set at ten players… On the other hand, when Racing deplored nine players affected by illness five days before the resumption, not many people were moved…
However, the Greens do not have to be ashamed of their performance. It was a bit like a Cup game, with a very young and very enthusiastic team, who could have opened the scoring if Boudebouz had not sent his penalty over the goal. About this penalty, you have to explain to me how we can whistle for this foul Kawashima on Moueffek and not whistle for the same fault Bernardoni on Mbappé, Saturday in Angers? In both cases the attacker has lost the ball and in both cases there is a goalkeeper fault. It is not normal that overnight, two referees make a radically opposite decision for exactly the same fact of play.
The Nice problem? The players…
Still, a few minutes after the failure of Boudebouz, Ajorque deflected a cross from Lala to score the only goal of the match. The end of the match was painful for the Alsatians who did not have a good match but who recorded their third consecutive victory. A victory which uproots Laurey’s players from the bottom of the ranking. Considering the upcoming calendar for Racing, one can think that in February, it will be far from the threatening places.
The same cannot be said of Nice, where we are still waiting for the Ursea effect. I have already had the opportunity on this blog to use irony by saying that things have been going much better since Vieira left. In fact, the appalling performances, week after week, of the Riviera group, tend to prove that what is wrong with this club, it is the players. Once again, we saw no speed, no desire, no game … Yet handicapped by the absence of Ben Arfa, the Girondins have developed a nice football, but they were so little upset in their intentions that it is normal enough that they scored three goals almost like on parade. Especially since Benitez, who was one of the very good goalkeepers in Ligue 1, seems to give up psychologically. The Argentinian can’t take it anymore and it shows. He is fed up with assists from his defenders, fed up with being left behind and “over-requested” every weekend. The Gym’s behavior is worrying enough and I don’t see Ursea staying in post for very long. It’s nice to change coaches but when the situation gets worse, you have to make choices.
At Beaujoire, the Canaries of Domenech conceded – or obtained, as they wish – against Lens their third consecutive draw. Nantes have long led on a Louza penalty after Kakuta missed his three minutes earlier. But the small lensois leader made up for it at the end of the match by taking advantage of the poor appreciation of Pallois on an aerial ball to equalize on the first shot on target from the Sang et Or. These are small steps for the FCN, we feel the invested team but it is still as little talented.
Not at the end of our surprises …
At the end of the afternoon, Lille suffered a lot against Reims to stay in contact with PSG. With a very poor first half, punctuated by a goal from Zeneli or Maignan is hampered by Abdelhamid. Unfortunately for the Champenois, the daring recovery of Rajkovic and the slip of Cassama made it possible to revive the LOSC just after the break, Bamba taking advantage of the windfall to wind a nice shot in the small net. At the end of the game, more enterprising Northerners snatched the three points thanks to a goal from near David, which followed a long shot from Xeka badly repelled by Rajkovic. The Serbian was sparkling last year but is losing ground this season.
And then in the evening, I expected Lyon to suffer against a Metz team that I have often found remarkable on the outside: they had lost at the very end of the match in Paris, had been joined in all end of the match in Marseille… We know that it is a team that has defensive skills but it also displays good qualities in the ball outings and it had very good opportunities, as much as OL to be honest with in particular a pole and a bar. This shows a real offensive potential. And yet, the Messins lost Niane affected to the ligaments and Diallo sold to Strasbourg …
But the X factor of this Lorraine formation is Boulaya. The Algerian international has a crazy talent, like his rake on Caqueret and his shift for Leya Iseka on the Metz goal. An action on which Lopes seems hesitant to release – it’s quite rare for him – which prevents him from being able to intervene. And this is how Metz achieved what is not even an achievement given the physiognomy of the match but a superb performance. On the OL side, we see that the aligned midfield was probably too uniform. Between Caqueret, Mendes and Paqueta, not a medium has carried the game forward. Paqueta is supposed to be that one but he didn’t do it that much in this game. As for Memphis, he is certainly the source of Lyon’s best chances but he was less successful than last week in Rennes. Now it is clear that Toko-Ekambi’s denied goal for Aouar’s offside position is problematic. In my opinion, the VAR went beyond its role by taking the decision to invalidate this goal that Madame Frappart had accepted. The fact remains that after this setback, OL therefore cedes its leading position to the Parisian-Lille duo and points to two points. With the comebacks of Monaco and Rennes, this championship is still far from having delivered its truth and we are perhaps not at the end of our surprises …
Pierrot
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