Football: First division league - The Lions fight back against Revengers |29 September 2017
Praslin side Revengers surrendered a two-goal lead to share the points with The Lions in a 2-2 draw at Stad Linite on Wednesday afternoon in a leaguematch.
Revengers had suffered a minor mishap before this match when some of their players did not make it on time for their flight as they were given an earlier plane than the original time.
Therefore coach Basil Hoareau had to tinker with his squad who started slowly as The Lions came at them in the first 15 minutes of the match and they even lost Ivan Cedras in the 9th minute through an ankle injury and in came Andrew Jean.
The Lions should have broken the deadlock in the 14th minute when Randolph Lablache slipped a pass to Darrel Damou who in turn laid the ball on a plate to Liberian striker Mohamed Varney who somehow missed a yawning goal from close range.
The Lions were made to rue their miss four minutes later when their defender Christopher Derjacques apparently handled the ball and referee Emile Fred adjudged that the infringement occurred in the penalty area and so he pointed to the penalty spot.
Malagasy Evariste stepped up to stab the ball into the far corner for a 1-0 lead despite a good attempt by goalkeeper Jerome Dingwall to stop Revengers from going in front.
The goal affected The Lions who struggled to get back into their rhythm and in the 32nd minute, Malagasy Clariel played a short back pass and Revengers’ striker, Malagasy Ludovigue raced onto it forcing goalkeeper Dingwall to rush out to head the ball into safety as the first half ended with the score at 1-0.
The Lions tried to push more men forward in the second period and in the 47th minute, left back Andrew Onezia went marauding forward as he linked up with Clariel and he eluded two defenders to rifle a right foot shot which ricocheted off the crossbar.
Revengers then raised their game and went 2-0 up from some superb work by Evariste who got the better of The Lions’ Lanto before he sent in an inch-perfect right foot cross to Ludovigue who drilled the ball home.
The Lions were now out of sorts at the back and a minute later, Ludovigue pounced on a loose ball to shoot at goalkeeper Dingwall who parried the ball and the Revengers’ striker collected the ball and set up Evariste who delayed his shot and it was blocked on the goal line as The Lions rode their luck.
In the 69th minute, Ludovigue showed good pace to out speed The Lions defence and he sent in a teasing cross but Danio François failed to tuck home at the near post.
In another twist in this interesting match, Revengers then seemed to run out of steam and The Lions came back at them in the latter stages and in the 85th minute, Lanto tried to lob Revengers reserve goalkeeper Johanne Pouponneau but he did well to punch the ball away from danger.
A minute later, Damou floated a free kick at the far post where Lanto was allowed to control the ball and he unselfishly laid it to substitute Laurent Vel who smashed it into the roof of the net for a 1-2 score.
In the 88th minute, Vel returned the favour to Lanto with a superb cross which the Malagasy midfielder chest-trapped and looked odds on to score but his near post shot produced a great save by goalkeeper Pouponneau to keep his team in the lead as they had their backs to the wall with The Lions’ pressure.
Revengers cracked in the 91st minute from an Onezia cross and defender Hedy Esther stretched his arm to stop the cross and he handled the ball to give away a cheap penalty though his colleagues tried to contest the decision to referee Fred.
Lanto took responsibility of the spot kick and blasted it into the roof of the net to make it 2-2.
The Lions though saw Clariel receive a second yellow card in the 93rd minute for fouling Evariste to pick up his second yellow card after being booked earlier for dissent and it means he will miss his team’s away fourth round tie against La Passe next week which is a big blow for coach Gavin Jeanne who complained about this sending off after the match where both teams shared the points.
“I am very disappointed with my players’ performance as we started brightly and created a few chances in the first half but then we lost our way and even I am not happy with some of the referee’s decisions especially the penalty against us which I feel was an incident outside the box and the sending off of Clariel was harsh,” The Lions coach told Sports NATION.
As for Revengers coach Hoareau whose team are fighting to fend off relegation as they lie in 11th position on the league table, he felt his team let slip a great chance to win three vital points.
“We should have won this match with the number of clear chances in the second half, but we are also satisfied with a point in this away fixture,” claimed the Revengers coach when he spoke to Sports NATION.
R. J-L.