“Silence, we are sinking”: the banner of the Gladiators, who boycotted the evening match against Niort like the Nemausus, sums up the situation. The Crocos have once again lost (1-2) after showing almost nothing, and are sinking a little deeper into the crisis.
Pouring rain, an empty stadium or almost, a team in crisis of confidence: it is an understatement to say that the lights were not green at the kick-off of this match of the 14th day of Ligue 2. However, the Pascal Plancque’s players started their match well, like an enterprising but too personal Ferhat in the first minutes. If it is not flamboyant, the start of this first period suggests that tonight, the Crocos can hope to take points. The pace is not really high, and the technical inaccuracies on both sides are increasing, the weather not helping it is true.
The Niortais, although not particularly impressive, took the upper hand around the quarter of an hour. However, it was the Nîmes who came very close to opening the scoring, when Ferhat inexplicably missed the ball alone six meters after a header from Eliasson (21st). Too bad, especially since the Chamois will not miss their first clear chance. The Tunisian international Zemzemi tumbles down the right side, erases Guessoum too easily, author of a catastrophic match, and goes towards the goal. Ueda believes in the center, does not go out on the Niortais who adjusts Dias closely to score his first goal of the season (0-1, 25th).
The Nîmes try to answer but at the moment, they form more of an agglomeration of players wearing the same jersey as a team. We can see it in the content of the timid red and white attempts, systematically individual, like this raid by Eliasson (30th) or the multiple balls taken by Ferhat, who shines above all in his bad choices with the ball at his feet. As for the midfield, he is ghostly.
What remains of the start of the season which, even if it was not extraordinary, was, by contrast, much better than what the Crocos have served us since the end of the summer? A few set pieces from Benrahou sent a fleeting thrill through the defense of Sébastien Desabre’s men. That’s all. After a last strike from Sainte-Luce which probably ended up in the parking lot, the Crocos, feverish behind and clueless in front, returned to the locker room behind. And as if that weren’t enough, Ferhat will exchange a few sweet words with the few Gladiators present. Everything is fine.
On creuse
Same pattern in the second half, with Crocos pushing to get back into the game, and Niortais taking advantage of it to plant them on the counter. This time, it was Paquiez, who had been pretty good so far, who was eliminated by Vallier. The Chamois overflows and finds, from a good cross at ground level which passes between the central Nîmes and Dias, Mendes who concludes closely (0-2, 51st). The Crocos are at the bottom of the hole.
However, a timid clearing occurs three minutes later. Cubas finally decides to play some football and scores an opening for Eliasson on the right. The Swede, at the corner of the surface tries a cross-shot which surprises Braat and reduces the gap (1-2, 54th). The moment to pack the match, to sound the rebellion, to get out of the negative spiral in which the club is stuck?
At all. The minutes that follow are a festival of missed passes, and on the hour mark Niort is not far from the third goal following a mess in the Nîmes area. The match sinks into a spatiotemporal rift, nothing happens, one out of two passes ends up on the sidelines, the Nîmes as well as the Niortais refuse to play football, and the only action that we find by searching our notes on the second quarter of hour of the second period is a completely missed strike from Sainte-Luce in the 73rd.
In short, even and perhaps especially if you like football and NO, the match becomes painful and endless. Pascal Plancque’s men, whose future darkened from match to match, barely grew at the end of the match, without really giving the impression of believing in it, just like the stadium, sluggish and almost empty. The match ended in the most complete anonymity, between a Niort who did not show much, and a Nîmes Olympique who, after hitting rock bottom at Guingamp last week, began to dig. Tonight, the Crocos are seventeenth.
Thierry ALLARD
14th day of Ligue 2. Stade des Costières. Spectators: 1,174. Nîmes Olympique – Chamois Niortais FC. 1-2. (halftime: 0-1). Referee: Mr. Thual. Goal for Nîmes: Eliasson (53rd). Goals for Niort: Zemzemi (25th), Mendes (51st). Warnings in Nîmes: Guessoum (66th), Paquiez (85th). Warning in Niort: Mendes (13th).
Nîmes: Dias – Paquiez, Ueda, Guessoum, Sainte-Luce – Fomba (cap.) (Ponceau, 67th), Cubas, Benrahou (Ómarsson, 67th), Eliasson, Ferhat – Koné (Delpech, 78th). Unused substitutes: Bråtveit (left), Burner, Philibert, Valerio. Trainer: Pascal Plancque.
Niort: Braat, Yongwa Ngameni, Kilama, Passi, Moutachy – Doukansy, Louiserre (cap.), Vallier (Benchamma, 71st), Boutobba, Zemzemi (Renel, 89th) – Mendes (Cissé, 90th+3). Unused substitutes: Louchet (left), Conté, Mbondo, Lebeau. Coach: Sebastien Desabre.
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