At the Allianz Riviera, the Greens experienced a real ordeal on Friday, at the start of the 5th day.
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Already in great difficulty with three defeats in the first three matches of the season in Ligue 1, Saint-Etienne sank, Friday September 20, against Nice during the 5th day, losing 8-0. On the Aiglons’ pitch, Olivier Dall’Oglio and his men quite simply experienced the worst first period in the history of the French championship since… May 24, 1997.
27 years ago, Olympique Lyonnais managed to score seven goals in the space of 45 minutes against rivals Marseille (an 8-0 final victory). This Friday, it only took Mohamed-Ali Cho and his teammates 40 to deceive Gautier Larsonneur six times, with a dark look as he went to pick up the ball in his net. At half-time, the statistics sheet was almost dizzying: nine shots for Gym, seven on target for… six goals (Batubinsika own goal (1-0, 4th), Ndombele (2-0, 7th), Cho (3-0, 24th), Moukoko (4-0, 26th), Guessand (5-0, 37th), Moukoko (6-0, 39th).
“The score is eloquent, 6-0 I have never taken that in one halfSaint-Etienne right-back Dennis Appiah courageously explained to DAZN. It’s nonsense! As soon as they put the ball in the half-spaces, we’re overwhelmed. They’re playing it well but we’re not there at all.”
For their part, the Aiglons celebrated the club’s 120th anniversary in style with this success, equalling their record for goals scored in an elite match.
The second half did not allow the Greens to reduce the magnitude of the blow, quite the contrary, with two additional goals from Sofiane Diop (7-0, 75th) and Pablo Rosario (8-0, 86th) finishing off a particularly dark evening for ASSE. This was their heaviest defeat in the first division since November 1951.
At the final whistle, Léo Petrot did not mince his words, still on the DAZN microphone: “Tonight is a disgrace. We should be ashamed of ourselves, our supporters. For all the work we put in. Doing this is unacceptable. To concede eight goals, to be non-existent in terms of spirit and duels, I have no words. We have ten days to work very well. There is a match in Nantes, there is a championship that continues.”
Saint-Etienne fans can try to reassure themselves by clinging to the established proverb: “It’s better to lose 8-0 once than 1-0 eight times”. But not sure that this will be enough, in the heat of the moment, to soothe souls…