There was no separating Angers SCO and Stade de Reims on Saturday, with Mathieu Cafaro and Vincent Manceau exchanging goals in a 1-1 draw at the Stade Raymond Kopa.
Angers SCO 1-1 Stade de Reims
THE MATCH
After a tepid start, Angers exploded into action past the 20-minute mark. Angelo Fulgini span the ball into the box for Flavien Tait, but his fellow attacker failed to get any purchase on his shot, which Edouard Mendy collected comfortably (21'). Jeff Reine-Adélaïde then came close after a fine team move, but when he let fly Mendy was once again equal to the threat on his goal (25'). Tait, unbowed, then skipped past three markers and sent a fine effort towards the top corner, but Mendy managed to save once again (27'). Tait then fired a free-kick straight into the Reims goalkeeper's gloves (31'), the hosts utterly dominant. The one time Mendy was beaten - Baptiste Santamaria letting fly after a well-worked free-kick - the shot-stopper was saved by his woodwork (45'), and the sides went in for the break with the deadlock, implausibly, intact.
Chances for both sides
That changed just past the hour. Arbër Zeneli burst into the Angers box and crossed for Cafaro, and the Toulouse FC academy graduate made little mistake in bagging his sixth goal of the season from close range (63'). Rémi Oudin then came close to making it two when he found space on the edge of the home box, but his powerful shot flew wide (66'). Instead it was Angers who were next to make the net ripple, Santamaria finding Manceau who skipped past Zeneli before smashing in the equaliser (71'). Both teams had chances to make the three points their own - Wilfried Kanga seeing a shot punched away by Mendy (77') before Cafaro tested Ludovic Butelle with a free-kick at the other end (88') - but there was to be no winner in the end, with Karim Abed's full-time whistle going with the scores at 1-1.
THE PLAYER: Edouard Mendy
Mendy may have been denied what would have been a 14th clean sheet of the season, but many fellow goalkeepers would have conceded far more than what the Senegal shot-stopper did here. There was precious little he could do about Manceau's equaliser, and Senegal have done well to cap the Montivilliers-born player before he could creep into the France squad.
THE STAT: 9
Reims' European ambitions suffered a blow, but they remain undefeated in nine matches against Angers in all competitions. The last time the Champagne club suffered defeat to Les Scoïstes was back in in August 2008, when both clubs were playing in Domino's Ligue 2.