Jean Canesse, Media365, published on Friday January 24, 2025 at 10:53 p.m.
No winner in this promoted duel between AJ Auxerre and AS Saint-Etienne (1-1). Despite Burgundy's opening score, the Greens grabbed a precious point in the race to maintain.
So that wasn't enough. Among other precise instructions (races, intensity, technique), Christophe Pélissier had made offensive efficiency the watchword at the time of this new promoted duel between his AJA and AS Saint-Etienne on Friday. An efficiency rather present at Abbé-Deschamps, for Perrin and others, but which did not allow them to win a first match in Ligue 1 for exactly two months (four points taken out of twenty-one).
Without Osho, excluded during the last defeat in Angers (2-0), but with the returns of Jubal and Joly, the Icaunais eleven had in any case made the difference first, taking advantage of their highlight. After Sinayoko's shot on the post (23rd), it was Traoré who launched his team after a superb individual rush (1-0, 27th). An eighth goal in Ligue 1, already, for the man who had scored neither with Naples (9 matches) nor with Bournemouth (3 matches) in Serie A and the Premier League last season.
-The immense return of Mensah
The Burgundians also missed out on certain shots, by Joly (15th), Massengo (76th) or Onaiwu (89th), and the same Joly was unable to realize the only real Burgundian opportunity after returning from the locker room (52nd). But it was mainly defensively, in fact, that they lacked efficiency. Harmless for almost 45 minutes, despite 67% possession, the Greens were able to equalize before the break in their only situation in the first act. And after three interventions from Léon, it was Stassin who headed the ball into the back of the net (1-1, 45th).
“A tone below technical level”, by Appiah's own admission after the meeting, ASSE could even have won without a huge return from Mensah on his line. Boakye had just cleared Léon, hitting towards a goal that we thought was empty, but that was without taking into account the feat of the Auxerre defender (58th). Unable to be more dangerous and therefore to decide between themselves, the two teams seemed rather satisfied with this point taken with a view to maintaining. In the standings, ASSE (14th) leaves the red zone and is currently one point ahead of Nantes and Rennes, before their weekend match. The AJA (still 11th) maintains its five points lead over the Greens.
