Bordeaux dominated possession and hit the cross-bar in a late push, but it wasn't enough to avoid a 0-0 draw with Guingamp, for whom Nolan Roux missed a gilt-edged chance to put the league's bottom club in front.
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Girondins de Bordeaux 0 - 0 EA Guingamp
THE MATCH
Bordeaux came close to clinching this rescheduled Week 23 clash at home to bottom club Guingamp on Wednesday night, but Jules Koundé's superb angled header from a Toma Basic corner crashed back off the bar (74') and the points ended up being shared.
As predicted by Guingamp boss Jocelyn Gourvennec, it was an open and hard-fought match, with Bordeaux hogging the ball (66% possession) and out-passing a tenacious Guingamp 475 to 210. However, it was the visitors, who last won in the league back in mid-January (2-1 over Rennes), who threatened first as Nicolas Benezet skinned Otavio and fired a snap-shot. Vukasin Jovanovic got a foot to it, putting the pressure on Benoît Costil, but the France 'keeper managed to tip it wide of the post (28').
Yann Karamoh fired over for Bordeaux a minute later and then Nolan Roux missed an absolute sitter just after the break, with Les Girondins' top scorer François Kamano providing the last flash-point of the match as he latched onto a cross from the excellent Basic, but the resulting shot was straight down the pipe to Marc-Aurèle Caillard. The draw sees Bordeaux and Guingamp remain in 13th and 20th places respectively.
THE PLAYER: Nolan Roux
The journeyman striker had a gilt-edged chance to hand Guingamp an unlikely lead minutes into the second half, but even with the ball sitting unattended on the six-metre line after Benoît Costil had stopped Jovanovic's wayward ball with an outstretched foot, Roux couldn't get his tackled effort on target. It was the perfect opportunity for the 30-year-old - who bagged 15 in Ligue 1 Conforama for Metz last season - to get his third of the campaign in just his 11th start.
THE STAT: 4
Although Gourvennec would doubtless have preferred all three points, the single point from the draw is nothing to be sneezed at, as it reduces Guingamp's deficit behind 18th-placed SM Caen to four points with 13 matches left to play. Seventeenth place - and safety - is six points away and Guingamp now have a run of three matches against teams in the lower reaches of the table in which to make up some ground.