Ligue 2. Dijon brings down Saint-Etienne at the start of the season
Dijon has made a successful comeback. At home, Omar Daf’s proteges dominated Saint-Etienne 2-1 at the start of the 2022-2023 Ligue 2 season. Eleventh last year, the Dijonnais thus pocketed their first three points. The Greens had been sanctioned after the overflows which occurred during the play-off match for accession to Ligue 1 against Auxerre last May. They remain in the negative, with -3 points on the counter.
Dominating in the first period, the Burgundians were rewarded half an hour into the game. On a strong low cross from the left signed Christopher Rocchia, the Saint-Etienne defender Mickaël Nadé tried a clumsy heel in front of the but to clear. At the far post, Bryan Soumaré counters the raise, which benefits Mickaël Le Bihan. In fox of the surfaces, the Dijon striker only has to push the ball into the back of the net.
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Dijon could have killed the game
About ten minutes later, Le Bihan gratifies this time the Stade Gaston-Gérard with a small festival. On a touch – which should have been from Saint-Etienne -, caught between two opponents, the former Auxerrois turns around and slips past Idrissa Camara at the entrance to the surface. The latter fires a shot from the left, repelled by Etienne Green. But the ball hit a defender of the Greens and returned to the feet of Soumaré, who concluded from the left in the empty goal.
At the exit of the locker room, Dijon could have definitely killed the match. In quick succession, Walid Nassi then Le Bihan missed the inevitable. On the right of the surface, the latter first slips a ball between two defenders to his teammate, who finds himself alone against the goalkeeper. But Nassi removes his strike, which takes off above the crossbar.
The next minute, the roles are reversed. Nassi crashes into the defense and sends a new strong low center from the left. Green brushes the ball, which arrives at the feet of Le Bihan at the far post. Alone in front of goal, the striker completely misses his recovery from the left, which failed to the right of the cages.
Bouanga sees red
At the hour of play, the men of Laurent Batlles begin to emerge from their slump. Denis Bouanga solicits Baptiste Reynet for the first time thanks to a shot from the left, pushed back by the knees of the Dijon goalkeeper. Then, three minutes later, the Stéphanois striker hit a curl which again forced Reynet to push back to his left.
It’s finally at the 69e minute that the Greens regain hope. Bouanga – still him – sends a distant center which finds Ayman Aïki on the right of the surface. The young striker, who entered at the break, resumed from the right and seemed to want to cross… but the ball ended up in Reynet’s small left net.
Too little inspired in the last 20 minutes of the match, Saint-Etienne failed to crack the Dijon lock a second time. The Greens even lose Bouanga, excluded in the 90e minute for having criticized Romain Lissorgue, the referee of the meeting