St Michel sneak past Côte D’Or |27 January 2014

St Michel sneaked past Barclays league champions Côte D’Or on a 1-0 score at Stad Linite on Saturday afternoon in the first match of the two-leg final in the Champions Cup.

This match was always going to be a crowd puller between these two great rivals who collected all the silverwares on offer last season, with St Michel relinquishing the league crown to the Praslin outfit. As for Côte D’Or, they could not defend the Airtel cup against St Michel who also lifted the inaugural Intelvision cup.

St Michel made a bright start to this eagerly awaited encounter despite missing the presence of their playmaker Malagasy Hassan Aly who is out injured.

In the 4th minute, Yannick Manou, who had an outstanding game in central defence, dispossessed Malagasy Jean Tigana to release Wilnes Brutus whose cross fell to Malagasy Jocelyn Fenosoa whose goal bound shot was blocked by a defender.

Seven minutes later St Michel’s good start was rewarded as Joel Barbe linked up with Brutus whose instinctive cross was headed home by the unmarked Fenosoa to give his team a 1-0 lead as well as scoring his sixth goal in two matches.

The goal seemed to stir Côte D’Or into action but St Michel still had the upper hand and in the 26th minute Gervais Waye-Hive floated a corner onto Captain Allen Larue’s head but he could not direct it on target.

Côte D’Or then enjoyed a good spell of possession and in the 35th minute Marcus Labiche fed Dine Suzette who exploited space in the St Michel defence to rifle a fierce shot at goalkeeper Gino Melanie who could only parry the ball. Gerald Basset closed in on the loose ball but a last ditch tackle by captain Larue cleared the danger.

St Michel then had to replace Brutus with an ankle injury after he had made a decent start on the right wing and Leeroy Mathiot came on.

Mathiot tested goalie Kitson Cecile with a near post header in the 43rd minute after exchanging passes with Waye-Hive but the 2013 goalie of the year saved easily.

A minute later Fenosoa latched onto a through ball to bore on goal but Gervais Saminadin recovered brilliantly to put in a tackle in the nick of time to force a corner.

Côte D’Or brought on their new recruit Ryan Antat for the injured Malagasy Mazinot Valentin in the second half.

But this half was marred by some bizarre decisions by referee Elzea Michel who almost spoilt the contest as he was always far away from the action and was erratic with his decisions which lacked consistency.

In the 45th minute, Basset went down under a strong challenge by Malagasy Jimmy Radafison but the official allowed play to go on as Côte D’Or protested. The ball reached Fenosoa who was kicked at by Saminadin as he rolled to the ground. Saminadin should have received his second yellow card as he had been booked earlier in the first half. Strangely referee Michel returned to the incident involving Basset and Radafison to book the St Michel defender and then raced forward to award St Michel a free kick against Saminadin but allowed the Côte D’Or defender to get away with an unsportsmanlike gesture.

These kind of decisions really upset both sets of players as well as the supporters in this highly competitive encounter with plenty of pride at stake.

In the 52nd minute St Michel’s Fenosoa hassled for the ball with defender Marie and he then let fly a cracking shot which looked destined to crash into the net but goalkeeper Kitson Cecile produced a top drawer save to deny him.

Côte D’Or though took the game to St Michel but almost got caught in the 67th minute as Fenosoa’s burst of speed took him past Marie and Saminadin but Alex Nibourette failed to connect to his teasing cross across the face of goal.

St Michel finished strongly and in the 80th minute Trevor Vidot set up substitute Leeroy Corallie who was in the clear but his shot crashed against the post and dropped into the inviting hands of a relieved goalie Kitson Cecile as the score remained 1-0 in favour of the boys of Coach Ralph Jean-Louis.

The St Michel manager Andrew Jean-Louis told Sports Nation after the match that his team deserved to win.

“It was a good match between these two teams though there is still room for improvement as we prepare for the African competition. We had a slight domination over the ninety minutes and therefore I’m satisfied with the result though I hope we can give an even better performance in the next match,” the St Michel manager said.

As for coach of the year Ahmed Abdou, he was disappointed with his team’s slow start, a sentiment echoed by his manager Robert Payet.

“We did not play well in the first half as we showed too much respect for our opponent. But we performed better in the second half though the level of officiating was discouraging,” the Côte D’Or coach told Sports Nation.

These two teams will resume their battle for the Champions Cup on Saturday at the Amitié pitch.

Revengers finish third

Second division champions Praslin’s Revengers defeated 2013 third division league winners Rude Boyz 3-1 at Stad Linite to finish in third position in the inaugural Champions Cup.

Revengers’ Paul Suzette set them on the road to their first win as he broke the deadlock in the 12th minute and 15 minutes later the same Suzette completed his brace for a 2-0 lead at half time.

Rude Boyz reduced the arrears through striker Marcus Esparon in the 72nd minute for a 1-2 score.  But Revengers scored a third in the 84th minute as former La Passe Malagasy striker veteran Eric Rajaobery headed past goalkeeper Trevor Toussaint for a 3-1 final score line.

Revengers’ coach Basil Hoareau though felt that his newly promoted first division team did not give a good account of themselves.

“We did not play well as we took things too easy as we were overconfident especially after scoring two early goals.  However we also used this match to give playing time to some of our players who did not have a chance to play in our two other matches in this competition,” coach Hoareau said.