With 10 points in four matches, midway through the league phase, Brest is in 4th place out of 32 C1 teams, ahead only of Liverpool, Sporting Portugal and Monaco. And again, without the reduction in the score in added time by Victor Olatundji (1-2, 90+1), the Finistériens would even be 2nd.
Faced with Sparta Prague weakened by three major absences and in clear loss of momentum in recent weeks, Brest approached a European meeting for the first time as favorite. The Bretons were able to take on this status and do what was necessary without much fanfare but without frills.
The tifo “Victory or death” framing a grimacing Spartan warrior’s head, deployed by the Prague kop, clearly expressed the extent to which the Czechs had their backs to the wall in the competition before this match, but he really did not intimidate the Finisterians.
Fernandes, the right pick
Perhaps to introduce a little novelty into a system now undoubtedly well observed by its adversaries — as shown by the very tight marking on Pierre Lees-Melou, including a butcher’s tackle from Matej Rynes which would have deserved more than a yellow in the 69th minute –, Eric Roy had slightly modified the animation of his 4 -3-3.
Leaving Romain del Castillo on the bench, he placed Mama Baldé on the right and Kamory Doumbia on the left of the attack line, the latter often playing with a very interior positioning. In itself, we cannot say that it was a great success, Mama Baldé often lacking technical accuracy and Doumbia not always making the right choices.
We think in particular of this huge opportunity in the 35th minute when, on a bright opening from Kenny Lala, he missed his right-footed shot six meters from the goal while the left seemed ideal. The tenure ofEdimilson Fernandes in the midfield, to spare Hugo Magnetti, was on the other hand a great success.
No pressure against Barça
Imperial in the middle of the field for an hour cutting off countless opposing passes, the Swiss international enhanced his performance with a superb opening goal, with a volley at the edge of the area, after a corner pushed back weakly by the Garnets defense (0-1, 37th). It has also long been believed that the ‘You-Zephs‘ were going to have to be satisfied with this narrow victory as their lack of realism was the downside of this match.
At the very start of the second act, a shot from the inside of the right by Lees-Melou missed the target by a hair (47th), and Camara missed two huge chances, one on a magnificent deflection from Ajorque in “Madjer”, where he also made a mistake while trying to finish from the right (65th), then, ten minutes later, slipping on a setback, still from Ajorque, perhaps too generous with this action.
But the deliverance ended up coming on an nth paid pressing which allowed Ajorque to search for Doumbia facing the empty goal in the middle, but it was a Prague defender (Kairinen) who finally pushed the ball deep (0-2, 80th), for a decisive “csc”.
While the next European match will take them to Barcelona, Brest will be able – and we must savor every word of this sentence – to approach this shock almost without pressure.
