Football - Côte d’Or’s sweet revenge over Red Star Defence Forces |06 November 2017

_{Reigning league champions Côte d’Or avenged their SFF Cup loss to Red Star Defence Forces as Malagasy Jean Tigana scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 triumph at Stad Linite on Friday evening in a rescheduled league encounter.}

_{Côte d’Or sent an ominous warning to their main rivals St Louis with a very convincing performance against one of the surprise teams this season whom they dismantled with consummate ease to close the gap on league leaders St Louis to a mere two points with three games remaining.}

_{Praslin-based Côte d’Or broke the deadlock in the 13th minute when Red Star Defence Forces failed to clear a corner and the ball fell to defender Gervais Saminaden on the edge of the penalty area and he let fly a left foot shot which flew past goalkeper Danny Larue to make it 1-0 at half-time for a slender lead.}

_{The 2016 league champions though put on a master class display in the second period to sweep aside a normally combative Red Star Defence Forces team.}

_{In the 53rd minute, Collin Esther swung a free kick in the opponents’ penalty area to Malagasy Vaoavy Faralahibe whose shot was blocked and the rebound fell invitingly to Malagasy Jean Tigana who thumped it into the roof of the net to make it 2-0.}

_{Tigana showed brilliant skill on the hour mark to turn defender Kenner Nourrice inside out before sending an inch-perfect cross to Ryan Antat but with the goal at his mercy, he miscued thus failing to add to his two goals against Revengers’ last week.}

_{In a rare Red Star Defence Forces’ attack in the 61st minute, substitute Collin Francourt set up Malagasy Michel Nambintsoa but his shot was charged down by goalkeeper Neddy Lesperance.}

_{Côte d’Or though were all over Red Star Defence Forces and in the 64th minute, Collin Esther started off a brilliant passing move from midfield as he played a fantastic cross field pass to Voavy who sent in a teasing cross across goal which was not cleared by a defender and Tigana stabbed the loose ball home for a 3-0 lead as he got his brace.}

_{Voavy and substitute Dine Suzette opened up Red Star Defence Forces’ rearguard in the 70th minute but goalkeeper Larue denied Voavy with a good block from close range.}

_{Three minutes later at the other end, Jocelyn latched onto a through ball but saw his shot come off goalkeeper Lesperance’s chest.}

_{Côte d’Or added a fourth goal in the 78th minute following a long goal kick by goalkeeper Lesperance which was pounced onto by Suzette to slip past defender Jones Larue who bundled him over for a clear penalty awarded by referee Emile Fred.}

_{Tigana took responsibility of the spot kick to send goalkeeper Larue the wrong way for a 4-0 score as he netted his hat-trick.}

_{Côte d’Or put the icing on the cake in the 83rd minute from a superb floated pass by Voavy to substitute Dave Brioche who bore on goal to neatly tuck it home for a 5-0 score.}

_{Red Star Defence Forces scored a late consolation goal courtesy of a gift from referee Fred who felt Côte d’Or’s Marcus François had fouled Jocelyn when he received substitute Carlos Mondon’s pass and so pointed to the penalty spot.}

_{Jocelyn picked himself up to coolly slot the ball past goalkeeper Lesperance for a 5-1 result but it was too little too late as Côte d’Or moved menacingly towards retaining their crown with one of their best performances under coach Nicholas Simouri who was full of praise for his players.}

_{“We played well today as we tried to put all our recent problems behind us and show what we are capable of doing on the pitch and therefore I must praise my players for their effort as the win helps to re-ignite the title race and show that Côte d’Or are still a force to be reckoned with though some had started to write us off but it promises to be an interesting end to the league race,” coach Simouri told Sports NATION.}

_{For his part, Red Star Defence Forces manager Philip Barbé felt his players did not give the best of themselves and will now have to battle hard to fend off relegation.}

_{“We lacked the fighting spirit in this match where we had wanted to win but we did not play to the expected level as we had aimed to win to move off the playoff zone. So now we have another tough match against LightStars on Praslin during the weekend and we have made things difficult for ourselves though we must keep battling to stay in the top flight,” the Red Star Defence Forces manager related to Sports NATION.}

_{R. J-L.}