Football: Airtel Cup quarterfinals St Michel stutter past LightStars in first leg |11 August 2018

Anse Aux Pins-based St Michel defeated Praslin outfit LightStars 2-0 at Stad Linite on Thursday afternoon in the first leg of their Airtel Cup quarterfinal tie.

St Michel had to reshuffle their backline due to suspension to Marlon Asba while captain Alex Nibourette had a slight injury and Nigel Hoareau was unavailable due to work commitment and in came Nick Labiche, Julio Brown and Perry Bijoux to partner Yannick Manou.

However, this rearguard never got going in the first half with the 5-3-2 system adopted by the coaching staff in a very forgettable first half where LightStars had the better chances.

In the 11th minute, St Michel gave away a free kick just outside the penalty area and Marlon Dugasse drilled the ball low at goalkeeper Alvin Michel who turned the low shot into corner.

The only other notable opportunity in an otherwise poor first half came in the 24th minute when Nick Labiche lost the ball to Malagasy Mario Ravo who raced to the bye-line to centre to his countryman Paul Bruyelle but the St Michel defence managed to clear the danger with a last-ditch clearance by Brown for a goalless first half.

LightStars almost opened the scoring in the opening seconds of the second half from a long ball by Malagasy defender Noelson Jeannot to Ravo who flicked the ball to Bruyelle and he looked odds on to score but goalkeeper Michel was quick off his line to tackle him to thwart the danger.

St Michel took the lead in the 52nd minute from a clumsy foul by Jeannot on Neil Confiance after he had been booked earlier in the first half for a crunching foul on the same player. Captain Hassan Aly stepped up for the set piece from 25 metres out and fired a rasping shot through the wall which crashed into the net past LightStars goalkeeper and captain Romeo Barra for a 1-0 lead much to the relief of the St Michel supporters.

St Michel were suddenly buzzing and in the 71st minute, Confiance and Labiche exchanged passes to open up LightStars but Confiance tried to round goalkeeper Barra who had rushed out of his goal when he should have squared the ball into the box to his teammates.

Four minutes later, Aly picked out his teammate, Malagasy Francis with a ball over the opposition defence which was missed by both Albert Rose and goalkeeper Barra but with his back to goal the St Michel forward could not hook the ball on target.

LightStars then had a go at St Michel in the latter stages and in the 77th minute, Malagasy substitute Xavier was pulled down by Brown and he sent in a swerving free kick which goalkeeper Michel just managed to tip over into corner.

In the 82nd minute, Rico Julius collected a stray pass from Labiche to feed substitute Bertrand Lablache who had goal in his sight and he fired at goal but a St Michel defender threw himself at the ball to block the danger.

On the stroke of fulltime, Lablache sent in an inch-perfect cross to Bruyelle who should have hit the target with his glancing header which rolled agonisingly wide.

St Michel then sealed the victory in the first minute of added time from Aly’s corner kick which was headed home by Trevor Vidot to make it 2-0 the final score in the first leg.

St Michel manager Andrew Jean-Louis was quite pleased with the result after his team made an indifferent start to this encounter.

“We struggled to adapt to our tactics in the first half and we lacked cohesion but we did improve after the interval and we played better and the victory underlines our dominance of the match in the second half,” claimed the St Michel manager.

As for LightStars coach Ted Ester, he was unhappy that his team conceded from two set pieces but remained confident his team can still overcome this deficit at home.

“We had a good first half where our defensive tactics worked well and we even had goal scoring chances but I am disappointed we gave away two goals from dead ball situations which should not have happened, but we will work to reverse this score as anything is possible in football,” coach Esther told Sports NATION.

R. J-L.