By Aline Chatel
Published on
By closing their eyes and opening their ears wide, the players of the Malherbe Caen Stadium could have believed themselves at home, this Saturday, August 27, 2022. Caen supporters had moved by the hundreds to ignite the Charléty stadium. They believed until the 87th minute in the victory of their proteges, whom they had pushed with a lot of singing, but Caen again let go in the money time.
It took almost half time for this long-closed meeting to settle. Validating the remarks made the day before by his coach, who spoke of his “excellent heading game”, Thomas opened the scoring on a ball perfectly dosed by Abdi. This first decisive free kick of the season also confirmed the immense quality of the Malherbistes in terms of set pieces.
First 44 minutes rather bland
Constantly dangerous in these phases of the game, the visitors have long relied on what they know how to do best, namely defending well. Before they cracked at the end of the match, they had suffered a single heat stroke lasting a few minutes per hour of play, which had however earned the intractable Anthony Mandréa to make four parries including two high-flying blows on stroke (61′, 62′, 63′).
In the offensive animation, Caen was less regular. He lacked a bit of technical accuracy and a few initiatives to destabilize Parisians who were dominant in possession of the ball but very sterile in its use. Essende was the first to try (17′), Mendy the first to frame, forcing Filipovic to a good flight (26′),
With a brilliant counter-attack badly concluded by Obiang (38′), Caen had however reminded Paris to be vigilant, before Abdi’s caviar for Thomas just before the break. The Malherbistes came very close to the break from the start of the second act, still with the amazing Abdi serving. Mendy with a header just missed the target (49′).
Abdi and Brahimi badly rewarded
Abdi believed in the second assist when he straightened a ball that we thought was lost to Brahimi. The recovery of the left-hander crashed on the bottom of the crossbar, without returning (59′). The cannon shot woke up the locals, very close to equalizing on the counter-attack when they had obtained a single chance beforehand by Guilavogui, who had not targeted (57′).
Caen cracked at the end of the match
The PFC started to believe it again and Caen fell too far in the last ten minutes. Chahiri, recently recruited by the Parisians, set fire for the first time (84′). He then served Hanin, who centered towards Lopez (1-1, 87′). Paris FC logically equalized after six previous stops by Mandréa. In additional time, Chahiri – after a big lack of foresight from Teikeu – and Kyeremeh in turn came close to the KO goal.
Not illogical, but…
On arrival, like two weeks earlier in Dijon, the draw is not illogical but the regrets are still Caen. Malherbe remains leader, tied with Dijon, but misses a great opportunity to follow up.
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