Nice stumble at Clermont as Ligue 1 hit by flurry of red cards

Brest won 3-1 at Angers, who ended with 10 men, and Auxerre won 2-1 at Montpellier as both teams had two men sent off. Rennes held on to beat Ajaccio 2-1 despite two players, one of them on the bench, receiving red cards. Elsewhere, Toulouse and Lorient drew 2-2 and, in the early game, Strasbourg and Reims finished level at1-1.

Nice, who spent much of last season in the top three before finishing fifth, have not won this season. They drew their first two league games and lost 1-0 away to Maccabi Haifa in their Europa League playoff first leg. Saif-Eddine Khaoui scored the only goal in the fifth minute. Nice lost Mario Lemina in the 80th minute, shown a red card for a tackle from behind. Two minutes later, Jean-Clair Todibo collected his second yellow for dissent after a foul was awarded against Aaron Ramsey. Nice sunk to 16th.

"We need to refocus, pick our heads up and move forward," said Nice coach Lucien Favre. "We need to be more consistent. We give away too many balls in general and for nothing."

Rennes took control against Ajaccio with goals by Martin Terrier and Arthur Theate. Mounaim El Idrissy replied for the visitors who had earlier wasted a twice-taken penalty.  Substitute goalkeeper Romain Salin received two yellow cards in quick succession for arguing from the touchline and Lesley Ugochukwu, who had only come on five minutes earlier was shown red for a foul in added time.

In Toulouse, Armand Lauriente opened the scoring for the visitors with a free-kick in the second minute. Rafael Ratao pounced on a poor clearance by centre-back Julien Laporte to level in the 30th minute. Toulouse goalkeeper Maxime Dupe saved a penalty by Terem Moffi before half-time. The hosts took the lead with a 63rd-minute goal by Thijs Dallinga before Lorient won a second penalty which Ibrahima Kone converted.

 

August 21, 2022

'Killed each other'

There were four red cards in Montpellier where Auxerre gained their first victory in Ligue 1 since May 2012. Mamadou Sakho headed the home team into a first-half lead. By the time Nuno da Costa levelled in the 70th minute, both teams had lost a player. Montpellier midfielder Khalil Fayad was sent off in the 46th minute and Auxerre striker M'Baye Niang in the 51st. After Mathias Autret scored the winner, with a 75th-minute penalty, Da Costa and then Montpellier midfielder Teji Savanier were sent off.

"There were four expulsions. That's heavy in a game without extreme violence," said Auxerre coach Jean-Marc Furlan. "In our time, when we played, we killed each other. There was never a yellow or a red. UEFA changed all that because there were serious injuries like (Diego) Maradona or (Marco) Van Basten," said the former defender, who played for a series of French clubs from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s. "We lost our two centre forwards because of reds. We're going to play like Barca. We're going to play without a centre forward."

Montpellier coach Olivier Dall'Oglio agreed. "There are red cards being shown very quickly, there are penalties being whistled very quickly," said Dall'Oglio.

Angers were already trailing to a 10th-minute goal by Jeremy Le Douaron when Halid Sabanovic was shown a straight red in the 35th minute. Le Douaron scored again and Achraf Dari added a third before Sofiane Boufal struck for the home team.

Reims, who had conceded four goals in each of their first two games, gained their first point of the season when Folarin Balogun levelled in the 81st minute to secure a 1-1 draw in Strasbourg.