| Referee : M. Djouzi, assistants M. Taxil & M Pagel - attendance : 300 Bookings : Saxemard (33rd) – Traoré, M. (22nd), Rauturier (43rd), Joly (51st), Bahoken (87th). Off : Gomis R. (45th, tackle from behind). |
This was woeful. Valenciennes, clueless in attack came here in search of a point to stabilise a rocking boat and got it. Red Star, completely short of ideas on front of gaol, but denied by a bit of bad luck and some inspired goalkeeping by Xavier Henneuse.
Red Star dominated from the outset, and should have buried their opponents. Potshots from
new recruit Dambou Traoré, (8 and 11 minutes), from Castro (20) all either flew wide or were stopped by the Valenciennes goalkeeper. Van Kets, virtually alone was short of service, more than often having to come back to fetch the ball himself. Just before the break Red Star nearly took the lead when an attempted clearance hammered into the backside of a defender but narrowly missed the target. Then, as Valenciennes mounted one of their rare attacks, Robert Gomis, until then faultless, lost his head and tripped one of the visiting players. The law may be an ass, but it has to be applied and Gomis took to the changing rooms a few minutes before the rest of his teammates.
Even with numerical superiority, Valenciennes were poor, and defended in depth. Red Stars' most dangerous player appeared to be Faye, who on occasions broke free down the left and fired across dangerous balls for the lonely Van Kets. A wonderful move from Red Star saw Castro address an inch-perfect pass to Kader Ferhaoui who in turn freed Van Kets to the left, but the strikers' powerful shot, which beat Henneuse rattled the upright and bounced to safety. It was just going to be one of those nights.