Football: a first day with spectacle and suspense in group A of Regional 1

Les joueurs de Fabrègues ont été pris en tenaille par ceux de Vauvert (en blanc) Midi Libre – LF

Le coup d’envoi de la saison a été donné avec les victoires du Grau-du-Roi, de l’Atlas Paillade à domicile ou encore de Vauvert et de Mende à l’extérieur.

Show and suspense. At the end of the first day of the championship, Group A of Regional 1 is already living up to its promise. The season has started off with a bang.

In the opening match, late Saturday afternoon, Clermont-l'Hérault hosted the Nîmes Olympique reserve team in a match that produced seven goals and a crazy storyline. Trailing 3-1, La Clermontaise managed to get back to level before the Gardois finally won thanks to a fourth and final goal in the 75th minute of play (3-4).

Guzman : "We were efficient"

Two other away victories punctuated Saturday's evening: Mende's in Béziers (1-2) and Entente Saint-Clément Montferrier's on the Frontignan pitch: “After the slap received in the Coupe de France (4-0 against Mauguio Carnon), we decided to be less elegant but more solid,” explained coach Jean-Michel Guzman. We were efficient when we had to be, we had opportunities to kill the match. We went to get this victory all together with a lot of courage."

The team relegated from National 3 got off to a good start in this ultra-competitive group: "It's never nice to go down. Relegation led to a significant wave of departures and made us switch to a new cycle where the objective is to rebuild in a Regional 1 championship that has improved."

Hammouch: “Count on us”

Among the other notable results, Montpellier Atlas Paillade easily disposed of the Canet-en-Roussillon reserve, Narbonne and Saint-Estève Perpignan drew (1-1) and Le Grau-du-Roi won at home (1-0) against Lunel in the first match of this day thanks to a goal from Baptiste Renaudin.

The nice surprise came from FC Vauvert. The promoted Gardois never ceases to impress. On the AS Fabrègues pitch, Nabil Hammouch's men were solid in building their victory in the first half (1-2): “It's a great satisfaction,” rejoiced the FCV coach who has been in office for five seasons when the team played in D1. With the smallest budget, we hope to do well by defending our colors. Count on us, we won't give up.”

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