Ligue 2 (28th matchday). Guingamp – Reims: 2-0
1 Defensive passivity that hurts During 90 minutes, the Guingamp defense suffered. Lacking organization and guilty of passivity on numerous occasions, the Costarmoricain defenders allowed the Reims players a lot of freedom. In the 9th minute, Japanese striker Nakamura found himself alone in the axis, easily dribbled past Ortola but failed to score. However, this warning was not taken into account. Five minutes later, Nakamura combined with Daramy on the edge of the area without the defense intervening with enough firmness. Daramy opened the scoring (1-0, 14′).
In the second half, the marking of the Red and Blacks on Leoni’s free kick left something to be desired. Especially leaving the Reims captain Gbane all alone at the far post to push the ball into the net (2-0, 70′). The knockout blow for En Avant.
But the scoreline could have been even more painful: Nakamura’s attempts lacked precision (23′ and 59′) and Ortola pushed N’Tamon’s header onto his crossbar following a corner (76′).
2 Saved by Jaouen and plagued by clumsiness On the other side of the field, the Guingamp attack failed to make up for the errors of its defense. Ewen Jaouen, the Brest goalkeeper trained at Guingamp, thwarted Mafouta and his teammates. First, by stopping the penalty from number 9 shortly after the break, not without mocking the Red Kop (49′), then miraculously turning Mafouta’s header onto the post a little later (60′).
Shortly after, Stanislas Kielt, taking advantage of a high recovery by Dylan Louiserre, found himself face to face with the goal but missed the target (70′). The end of a strong period where the Guingamp players failed to capitalize, letting the game slip away as Reims then punished them with a free kick shortly after.
3 Unlucky Roudourou The day’s defeat leaves Guingamp in 10th place in Ligue 2, 9 points behind the 5th-placed Reims. Especially, En Avant Guingamp struggles to string together results at home, after the narrow victory against Amiens on March 13. Before that, the Red and Blacks had a 0-0 draw against Rodez and a defeat against Saint-Étienne.
Technical stats Referee: Mr. Valnet. GOALS. Reims: Daramy (13′), Gbane (70′). Warnings. Guingamp: Nair (38′), Bartouche-Selbonne (43′), Sidibé (63′), Mafouta (66′), Abdallah (75′); Reims: Patrick (35′), Jaouen (68′). GUINGAMP: Ortola – Koffi, Gomis, Nair, Abdallah – Sagna (Samoura, 58′), Louiserre (c., Ahile, 71′), Sidibé, Hatchi (Mbemba, 58′) – Kielt, Mafouta. Substitutes not used: Bartouche-Selbonne (g.), Demouchy, Matumona, Matondo. Coach: S. Ripoll.
REIMS: Jaouen – Busi, Sekine, N’Tamon, Kotto, Akieme – Gbane, Patrick (Fofana, 90’+4), Leoni – Nakamura (Tia, 77′), Daramy (Bojang, 77′). Substitutes not used: Olliero (g.), Pallois, Diarra, Benhattab. Coach: K. Geraerts.
