Saint-Lô 3 - 0 Samourai (385858439)

A scorching day at Stade Louis Villemer, where 37884 spectators were in place for today's match. Luis Hernández Ramos was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Vincent Vallière and Hans Saint-Arnaud. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for Saint-Lô. The following players took the field: Ferment - Fouqueray, Foissy, Pausé - Reynard, Ferchichi, Belloy, Rouissi, Salles - Migeon, Barthel.

Samourai had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Starters: Zetterblom - Lavocat, Baji, Viron - Tapia, Mogame, Ortis, Baheux, Cupak - Garabedian, Farnese.

After a fine move down the middle B. Ferchichi nearly gave the home side a goal after 19 minutes. However the finishing shot went just wide. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave D. Salles from Saint-Lô a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 25 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! D. Farnese of Samourai had to be helped off the pitch as an injury meant he was unable to finish the game. T. Paulin came in to finish the match. J. Rouissi of Saint-Lô seemed to be floating in the air as he elegantly headed in to make the score 1 - 0 after a corner kick that was nicely executed by B. Ferchichi. Saint-Lô managed to extend their lead to 2 - 0 when L. Migeon cut in neatly from the left side and struck a fine shot past the away team's goalkeeper. J. Rouissi unleashed a swerving effort from the right that the visitors' keeper did well to tip wide. 2 - 0 was the halftime score. Saint-Lô claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 53 percent.

The referee showed Saint-Lô's N. Fouqueray the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. With 64 minutes played, Saint-Lô put themselves up 3 - 0 when the visiting defenders lost the ball to N. Fouqueray, who came up from the left and proceeded to coolly round the keeper and knock the ball home. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Saint-Lô lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. When N. Fouqueray made yet another studs-first tackle after 70 minutes, the referee was obliged to book the Saint-Lô player for the second time, sending him off the pitch. Samourai's I. Tapia made use of his speed to get free of the defence, but he still couldn't get a shot off 75 minutes into the match. At 77 minutes, the visitors got a chance to reduce the score when a penalty was awarded, but A. Baji, intimidated by the crowd, missed it. Samourai had a fair chance to reply after 79 minutes due to some fine moves down the left, but in the end J. Garabedian was slow to keep up with the play and was unable to make it into the penalty box to apply a finish. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Saint-Lô, with 52 percent of the ball.

Most important Saint-Lô player was J. Rouissi. J. Reynard turned in a dismal performance, however. Samourai's best player was J. Garabedian. On the other hand, A. Zetterblom's play was disheartening. The match ends 3 - 0.