A week after the draw at home against Le Havre and the induction of Fabio Grosso as coach to replace Laurent Blanc, Olympique Lyonnais still seems as fragile. Manhandled throughout the match by a confident Brestois, OL lost 1-0 on Saturday September 23 in Brittany during the 6th day of Ligue 1.

With 13 points on the clock, Brest has already put an end, at the top of the standings, to Nice’s reign which began on Friday evening by the Azuréens who won on the Monaco pitch. An “unexpected” first place for Eric Roy, the Brest coach. “But at the same time, as I tell the boys, in these six matches, if you look at the content, we didn’t steal anything from anyone,” he adds.

Conversely, the Lyonnais, sixteenth in the championship with only two points, still have many projects to resolve to hope to bring back a result from Reims on the next day. Almost non-existent offensively, they completely suffered the assaults of the Brestois, more present physically and in intensity, without ever having shown any reaction.

“We know where we are, it’s a difficult moment. It’s not going to change in one, two or three weeks. It takes time. It will be a very difficult course,” warned Fabio Grosso after the match.

Lack of success

However, it was close for Eric Roy’s players to have regrets from this meeting, largely dominated but which they were unable to kill. “The more the match progressed, the more I feared that we would be punished,” admitted the Breton technician. A scenario which had already cost them dearly in Marseille during their only defeat of the season. But they managed to force the decision narrowly thanks to a saving header from Steve Mounié (87th) which liberated the Francis-Le Blé stadium, while opening the counter of the Brest attackers, until now silent in front of the goal.

Faithful to their spirited start to the season, the Bretons quickly extinguished the Lyonnais who were dominated in all duels and on the back foot, with only one shot in the first period compared to 13 for the locals.

Fabio Grosso’s players could therefore consider themselves happy with the draw at the break, as the Brestois lacked success on their numerous opportunities, such as a Satriano strike repelled by Lopes (5th), or the crossbar found by Jérémy Le Douaron (24th), unhappy in front of the cages since the start of the season.

Even in the second period, where OL tried a little more offensively, the Lyon attackers only had crumbs to eat, Lacazette narrowly missing the target on one of his rare balls (56th), or colliding with goalkeeper Bizot (74th) on a pivotal shot.

Crazy match in Nantes

But it was still the Brestois who created the clearest opportunities, as when Le Douaron found himself too short to cut a cross from Chardonnet (61st). And it was on yet another Brest cross, this time signed by right side Kenny Lala, that Steve Mounié, coming in instead of Martin Satriano, freed his team with a header, just after hitting the post.

The match played earlier in the afternoon was much more spectacular at La Beaujoire with Nantes’ 5-3 victory over Lorient. The latter opened the scoring with their young nugget Eli Kroupi (6th) but never led again after the Nantes equalizer from Matthis Abline (42nd). The Canaries led 3-1 thanks to Cömert (46th) then Mohamed, who converted a sublime long-range free kick (55th).

At 3-2 after the goal of Merlu Romain Faivre (75th), the Nantes residents continued to drive the crazy pace of this match without any real midfield battle thanks to goals from Mollet (83rd) and Simon (90 9) . In the meantime, Tosin (85th) had maintained the suspense almost until the end.

The Nantes residents thus have a second victory and rank 6th in Ligue 1 with 8 points. Lorient remains stuck in 14th place with their six points.