Football: Nîmes Olympique, the evil eye

Aboubacar Ali Abdallah's runs did not allow Nîmes to score a second goal that would have been liberating. MIDI LIBRE – MIKAEL ANISSET

National/8th day. Friday October 4th at the Antonins, the Crocos were joined by Sochaux (1-1) in added time on a disputed penalty, the ball having hit Camara's face before his hand.

The end of the match was approaching, the Nîmes victory was taking shape, and surreptitiously, we had taken a look at the standings. NO had come back to four points behind the leader Nancy. Incredible but true… but too good to be true. In the 89th minute, on the fifth Sochaux corner of the second period (another fatal free kick for the Gardois!), Gabriel Henry, the central referee who had been very good until then, awarded a penalty to the visitors. For their coach Karim Mokeddem, “he's there”. For his counterpart Adil Hermach, who had reviewed the images before coming to the press conference, it was not at all the same story.

Adil Hermach: “Sochaux is doing well, and we are doing badly”

A story that ended badly for Nîmes, then. On this recovery by Corentin Jean, the ball hit the head of the unfortunate Camara before his hand, while Simon was beaten. In these cases, there is normally no supreme sentence. But in National, there is no VAR to go back. So, Camara, left eye swollen like Benoît Saint-Denis last weekend in MMA, was sent off. Then, the substitute Gnanduillet equalized on the wire (1-1, 90th + 3).

“Sochaux is doing well, and we are doing badly,” Hermach summed up. “There is disappointment, frustration, anger. At a very young age, I was taught not to talk about the referee, so I won't talk about it and in any case, it won't change anything. Our victory was completely deserved.” And over the whole game, I am very proud of my players." If we can't say that the Crocodiles played well, we can say that they managed to thwart the disappointing Lionceaux.

Mathis Picouleau, goal-scoring captain

"In National, there are values ​​that you have to have, aggressiveness, surpassing yourself and giving of yourself, otherwise, you can't exist. Until the hour mark, we had a demonstration of these ingredients by this team from Nîmes,” confirmed Mokeddem.

During the first act, there were some (good) intentions but also the feeling that the Gardois were not following through on their actions, due to lack of confidence or clumsiness. Which gave rise to half-chances. But, following three corners, neither Paviot (7th), nor Ali Abdallah (34th) nor Bouaoune (38th) found the target. Nor did Picouleau (13th) and Mexique (24th) on two good shots from afar. Without an injured Marcel or Camara on the bench, things were humming along, when they needed to speed up.

Simon and Mexique imperial

While Simon was impeccable in front of his goal, Mexique's vista and Ali Abdallah's bursts allowed them to take the upper hand as the game progressed. And the silky left foot of Picouleau, captain for the evening, broke the deadlock after a blocked free kick by Abdeldjelil (1-0, 67th). But Nîmes currently has the evil eye, and lost two points on a contentious decision. And the first two, Nancy and Concarneau, are finally six lengths behind, this Saturday morning.

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