While they thought they had done the hardest part by scoring the opening goal after an hour of play, the Aiglons were caught in the last five minutes, losing two very precious points in the race for fifth place. Frustrating!
As too often this season, the Aiglons leave frustrated from a match they dominated from start to finish.
A match that resembled a French Cup game for sixty minutes, with SCO d’Angers playing the role of the underdog, accepting the dominance of the visitors, firmly positioned in their 30 meters. Stéphane Moulin’s team reminded us why they have the nickname “dalle angevine.” Faced with the Black and White bus, the Gym—lining up as announced with Plea upfront, Srarfi on the wing, and Tameze in midfield—monopolized the ball, passing it around. They lacked a bit of sharpness and initiative near the box to be more dangerous, yet the Aiglons still threatened Butelle with nice strikes from Pierre Lees-Melou (17′) and Mika Seri (36′). They never saw danger approach Benitez’s goal, except just before the break on a through ball for Toko Ekambi, who was intercepted before shooting by Arnaud Souquet (42′).
The scenario was the same after the break. SCO, taking a big step towards maintaining their league status with a draw, continued to wait for their opponents and looked for depth for Toko Ekambi with every ball recovered. The Nice spark came from its leaders: incisive recovery by Dante in the opponent’s half, a shift to Seri who broke through the center and fed a beautiful ball to Plea. The Nice striker resisted the return of Thomas and Traoré to beat Butelle from close range. 1-0 after 67 minutes of play, the hardest part seemed done.
Angers had to take risks and almost succeeded with their first shot on target of the match in the 75th minute, when Benitez spilled Mangani’s volley. Toko Ekambi followed up but was thwarted by the Argentine goalkeeper.
Spaces finally opened up in the hosts’ defense, but Plea lacked precision after a burst from Saint-Maximin (81′). The match changed on a silly ball loss 40 meters from his goal by Tameze, a poorly cleared cross by the central defense, and an improbable yet superb volley by Fulgini, who struck the bar of Benitez and cleaned out the top corner (1-1, 84′).
In the closing minutes, the Gym, reorganized into a 3-4-3, hoped to retake the lead but Marlon from a corner (88′) then Seri from a free kick (90′) couldn’t score that precious goal.
These two points lost after leading the score, the 20th and 21st of the season, do not allow the Red and Blacks to take an advantage in the race for 5th place, pending the results of their direct opponents this weekend.
LUCIEN FAVRE’S REACTION
“It’s unfortunate because the three points were attainable. Angers played all out after we opened the score, with two strikers. In our management, we had a lot of possession but took risks when we shouldn’t have, and we also made bad choices. These mistakes lead to this: a goal from a situation where there was no danger at the start. They didn’t apply pressure, and we lost the ball on our own. We tried to score again, we had some chances, but it was before when we should have capitalized…”
DANTE’S REACTION
“We dominated the whole match. We created chances and got equalized again when they didn’t have much. It’s not easy to take results like this when we want to achieve our goals. We must be objective in analyzing our performance. We will need to keep working. We will not give up until the end of the season. Five finals remain.”
ALASSANE PLÉA’S REACTION
Like last Sunday, we lost 2 points in this race for 5th place. We can’t manage to do that ‘little thing’ to go ahead, but there are games left and we want to go for it. We made a small lapse in concentration, and it cost us. Then, he (Fulgini) scored a superb goal. But we need to be more solid. These matches are complicated against low blocks, and we have to manage to get that 1-0. That’s what we can’t do at the moment, and it might cost us at the end of the season.
