Quarter-finalist last year, FC Rouen 1899 (National) this time did not make it past the 32nd finals of the Coupe de France, beaten by a serious but not very efficient Lille (1-0) , Friday.
With a structure yet close to that of last year, we only found sporadically, and in the second half only, the madness which had made the defending champion, Toulouse, bite the dust, in 16th, and Monaco in 8th. , after disheveled scenarios.
Some may say that Régis Brouard's team is less “playful” than Maxime d'Ornano's team was last year.
But the result is also largely due to the application put by Lille who certainly did not look down on the Normans.
Without Benjamin André, suspended, Edon Zhegrova and Angel Gomes, injured, Bruno Genesio only played regular starters, with the exception of goalkeeper Vito Mannone and the Brazilian Ismaily who justified his coach's confidence by opening the score .
On a superb triangle action launched by Rémy Cabella and relayed by Jonathan David, Ismaily found the net (1-0, 21st) where, in an almost carbon copy action, Osame Sahraoui had come up against Axel Maraval, well out, then Clément Bassin (10th).
If they sometimes sinned by excessive collective play in front of the goal, the Northerners should have killed the match just before the break with two caviars from Sahrawi for Mitchel Bakker (45th) and David (45+2), who found the post .
For its part, FC Rouen created gaps too rarely to worry LOSC.
On a ball stolen from Aïssa Mandi by Jason Mbock, Christ Letono, six meters from the cages, sent the center back into the rainy sky (13th) and in the second half, a far too quick volley from Hicham Benkaïd (64th) or a crushed strike from Mbock (75th) were the all too rare positive thrills on the Norman side.
hap/lle
