Vincent Dégremont, Media365, published on Saturday November 23, 2024 at 9:08 p.m.
A little breath of fresh air for Saint-Etienne. Saturday evening, the Greens dominated Montpellier (1-0, 12th day), bottom of the championship, with a short header, to get out of the red zone before the other meetings of the weekend. Bouchouari's only goal, however, crushed the MHSC, which suffered a fifth setback in a row.
The roadblock runner received the red lantern, three points behind, still empty-handed outside. In no way intimidated by their place in the standings, the vibrant tribute to Rachid Mekhloufi before kick-off and the 33,000 Greens supporters, the Héraultais took control from the start, taking advantage of the wait-and-see attitude of Saint-Etienne. After less than two minutes, Arnaud Nordin dropped Dylan Batubinsika, then erased Yunis Abdelhamid with his inside hook, but came up against Gautier Larsonneur, who put his leg in opposition on his shot without momentum.
Sainté suffered, however a double favorable circumstance allowed him in turn to obtain a hot situation. In the 10th minute, a poor reading from Nikola Maksimovic and a failed clearance from Modibo Sagnan gave Ibrahim Sissoko the opportunity to find himself alone in front of Benjamin Lecomte… but the Malian center forward lost his support by trying to make a move that was too complicated. Brilliant in idea, pathetic in execution. In the 39th minute, Nordin had more fun with Batubinsika, immediately opening the scoring on a plate to Téji Savanier…
Abdelhamid frustrates Montpellier residents
Except that. Alone a few meters from the goal, the Montpellier captain was prevented from scoring by a fabulous tackle from Yunis Abdelhamid. Lucid and precise, the Moroccan veteran prevented ASSE from returning to the locker room by being led. Dominant in the first period, the red lantern was cooled from the restart. Sagnan headed a cross into the axis. Rabby Nzingoula wanted to throw it wide, but missed the ball. And, on the half-pipe, Benjamin Bouchouari took the opportunity to slam a half-volley which ended up in the opposite net (1-0, 47th)!
Groggy, the MHSC almost drank in the process, but Lecomte made a hockey goalkeeper save to check Zuriko Davitashvili, who had taken advantage of Maksimovic's slowness to try to slip the ball between his legs. When Tanguy Coulibaly left Léo Pétrot behind on the right wing and Wabi Khazri missed his pass in the 69th minute, Laurent Nicollin said to himself that fate was once again bearing down on his club. The Hérault president looked grim, probably cursing against the VAR which refused him two penalties this evening at Geoffroy-Guichard, where Montpellier did not play like a relegated player, but had the bad luck of a relegated player. As for ASSE, it is temporarily repositioned in 13th place.
