Nicolas De Préville scored the winner as Bordeaux beat Nantes 1-0 at La Beaujoire under interim coach Eric Bedouet.
FC Nantes 0-1 Girondins de Bordeaux
THE MATCH
At the end of a tumultuous week that had seen Jocelyn Gourvennec sacked, Bordeaux scored their second consecutive 1-0 away win. Bedouet, the fitness coach, took on the interim role for the third time, following 2005 and 2011, and his call for his players to show desire was answered.
Bordeaux were content to let Nantes have plenty of the ball and defended well before going ahead with the first attempt on target of the game. De Préville headed home a precise Youssouf Sabaly cross fro the right. It was a perfect header by the attacker as beat Léo Dubois in the air and planted the ball beyond the outstretched Ciprian Tatarusanu.
Les Canaris have still only scored 19 league goals this season but could have been level ten minutes before the break when Benoît Costil, captain with Jérémy Toulalan having followed Gourvennec out of the club, saved well from Diego Carlos.
Costil tipped over a Valentin Rongier attempt from range early in the second half, while Tatarusanu made the save of the match when he repelled a Malcom curler on 53 minutes. Bordeaux were comfortable until a late Nantes onslaught. Costil's reactions were again sharp as he denied Santy Ngom and Les Canaris' top scorer Emiliano Sala must still be wondering how he headed the follow-up over the bar.
Bordeaux will have Gus Poyet in place by the time they host Olympique Lyonnais in Week 23, the Uruguayan appointed on Saturday evening ahead of Belgian Michel Preud'homme, who was the early favourite.
THE PLAYER: Nicolas De Préville
Before this game De Préville had scored more goals for LOSC, where he started the season, in 2017-2018 than for Bordeaux. Playing on the left side De Préville's confidence was understandably boosted by his emphatic header as he began to look more like the forward that netted 14 times for Lille last season. De Préville now has four league goals, two for LOSC and two for Bordeaux.
THE STAT: 7
Bordeaux are unbeaten in the last seven Ligue 1 Conforama Atlantic derbies, winning five of them and drawing two. Nantes' last success was in December 2014.