Saint-Lô 1 - 2 TitiTim (385858428)

A scorching day at Stade Louis Villemer, where 26891 spectators were in place for today's match. Slavomil Votrubec was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Donato Hoelzer and Ralph Buss. Saint-Lô tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Ferment - Fouqueray, Foissy, Pausé - Reynard, Ferchichi, Belloy, Rouissi, Salles - Migeon, Barthel.

TitiTim decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. They fielded: Pöytäsaari - Patel, Beauger, Roman - Martin, Erez, Langlais, Garnier, Idone - Grolleau, Robichon.

After 5 minutes, the visitors nearly went up a goal, but L. Grolleau's free kick hit the crossbar. D. Salles of Saint-Lô was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. Saint-Lô had a good opportunity to take the lead as S. Belloy came up the left side, but he struck the ball weakly and it went straight into the arms of J. Pöytäsaari. The guests took the lead 18 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in J. Robichon scoring to make it 0 - 1. It was 0 - 1 at the break. Saint-Lô claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 52 percent.

The TitiTim players could smell victory in the air. R. Langlais wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for T. Cabaret after 46 minutes. The fierce heat made it important to save breath, and after a few swift runs G. Beauger found it hard to get back into position. Saint-Lô tried to even things up by sending a long ball towards the centrally placed strikers, but the visitors' defence got the best of this rather direct style of play. 79 minutes in, TitiTim's B. Garnier received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. A defender managed to keep the ball from crossing the goal-line after a curling shot coming in from the right from J. Robichon after 86 minutes, and prevented TitiTim from going up another goal. After 88 minutes of play, the free-spirited L. Grolleau decided to go for goal as he struck the ball from the corner of the pitch. The ball hit a defender in the face and bounced out of play. Some fine movement on the left led to a TitiTim goal after 88 minutes, making it 0 - 2. J. Robichon was noted down as the scorer. By now, the players in TitiTim felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. With 89 minutes played, G. Beauger of TitiTim fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving. N. Fouqueray of Saint-Lô seemed to be floating in the air as he elegantly headed in to make the score 1 - 2 after a corner kick that was nicely executed by B. Ferchichi. Saint-Lô enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 51 percent of possession.

Saint-Lô's top performer was clearly J. Rouissi. J. Reynard was a disappointment, however. The most dominating TitiTim player was without a doubt B. Garnier. On the other hand, G. Beauger's play was disheartening. The match ends 1 - 2.