Like anything can happen to the Girondins de Bordeaux this season. They finished for the first time this season a match without conceding a goal in Lille (0-0). What is called in the jargon a clean sheet. A real feat for the worst defense in Ligue 1 and by far this season.
A few figures to illustrate this. It had quite simply been almost a year since the Bordelais had not achieved this performance. Precisely, 324 days. The last time was at the end of last season against Lens on May 16, 2021. Since then, the Girondins de Bordeaux had played 30 games without being able to keep their clean sheet. During this whole period, they have conceded 71 goals. This makes an average of 2.4 goals conceded per match. Suffice to say that this somewhat explains their 20th place today. But hey, they did it in Lille so why not do it again by the end of the season.
And they did it with Gaëtan Poussin and 10 against 11 for a good part of the match, that’s the whole paradox in this story. David Guion indeed preferred the young Bordeaux goalkeeper rather than the usual holder Benoit Costil. The Girondins de Bordeaux coach claims it’s a sporting choice but there’s surely a bit of politics behind it after the incidents between the international keeper and some supporters in the last home game. By making this choice the club bought a kind of social peace. Costil is still in the band but he doesn’t play. In addition, the bet finally paid off with an XXL match for Gaëtan Poussin in Lille and the first clean sheet of the season. Suddenly, he is not sure to see Benoit Costil again in the Bordeaux jersey by the end of his contract in June.