Ligue 1: in Montpellier, maintained since its success in Toulouse, the understudies had the final word

Entré à la 68e minute, vendredi à Toulouse, Jordan Ferri a amené le but décisif de Khalil Fayad. MAXPPP – DDM-MICHEL VIALA

From Bertaud to Fayad, Ferri, Hefti or Karamoh: the usual or new replacements changed the match, in Toulouse on Friday May 3, and the end of the season for a maintained MHSC.

He arrived on foot, like anyone, in a club tracksuit. Except that Téji Savanier walked past his fresco in the heart of the Gély city, before being greeted by the applause of his loved ones in the middle of the night. The moment, immortalized by a video posted on social networks, says everything about the man and his way of life. He does not recount the contrasting start to the evening of the MHSC captain, author of a sublime goal before being sent off for an elbow. He also doesn't talk about this Friday at the Stadium, symbol of a season of half-time happiness for Montpellier, which will have finished better than it started. Like his replacements, men of an end to the championship sealed by a goal from the bench against TFC (1-2), for a singing performance.

Téji Savanier hier soir au quartier après son but extraordinaire à Toulouse 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/QwJi7gxIo3

— Actu Ligue 1 (@ActuL1_) May 4, 2024

Next August, La Paillade will experience a 16th campaign in a row in Ligue 1, the year it turns 50. And so she also owes it to her understudies, who came back from nowhere, a bit like her. But to fuel this revenge, there was first failure. From the first day, August 13, 2023, Léo Leroy's failure at the end of the match against Le Havre (2-2) had launched long months of insufficient contribution from replacements. Until the MHSC closed a too long parenthesis as the only L1 team without a goal from a starter…hellip; in Le Havre (0-2), last March 31.

Fayad : "We gave ourselves a mission"

Since then, the wheel has turned and the goals have paraded: Christopher Jullien in Normandy, Yann Karamoh against Lorient (2-0), Mousa Tamari in Reims (1-2) and therefore Khalil Fayad in Toulouse, Friday. Four achievements for as much success.

"We saw that it was a bad start, we gave ourselves a mission, to give the best of ourselves", explained Fayad in the area mixed Haut-Garonnaise. A few moments earlier, the 19-year-old midfielder had just appeared, after a sequence of dribbles from a Jordan Ferri who had entered the game and was “maradonesque”, at the very moment when his status d’irremovable seems to wobble. Before them, Karamoh had replaced Tamari, whose Michel Der Zakarian had "not liked the match", and brought ball gear and vice.

League 1 ranking

"We woke up, even at ten, the newcomers brought us their dynamism", congratulated the Hérault coach. Dimitry Bertaud and Silvan Hefti were started, only the second time this season for the goalkeeper. They contributed greatly to a celebration that had long been difficult to envisage. Fayad's goal changed everything.

The kid from the Sabines loves Toulouse and its goalkeeper, Guillaume Restes. In three shots, he scored two goals, the first in the first leg (3-0). The second counts double for the middle.

Scratch game time

Trained relay player but exiled to the wing since last summer, the French U20 international had a complicated year and sometimes gave the feeling of losing his smile on the bench (9 starts, 12 appearances). "But I don't talk. If the coach puts me in a place, I go there and do the job. No more, explained Fayad in the Toulouse night. It’is important, we have to work for the team." "Today, maintain here, it&rsquo ;is great, he added. But it's not over."

This is even less so for the understudies. With the rest of Benjamin Lecomte, suffering from a tendon, the suspensions of Lucas Mincarelli, Téji Savanier and Arnaud Nordin – also injured in the adductors according to France Bleu Hérault –, they should still have their say. The one at the end, obviously.