In the fight to stay in Ligue 1, Montpellier and Nantes parted good friends. At the opening of the 31st day of the French championship, Friday evening, the two teams shared the points at La Mosson (1-1). Following a cannonball start to the match with two goals in seven minutes, the pace of the match gradually faded to allow each clan to take a small additional step towards the main objective at the start of the season.
In the general ranking, the MHSC is almost saved, with nine points ahead of the current play-off Le Havre, three days before the end of the 2023-2024 financial year. For Nantes, the situation remains more fragile, with one more point – four now – on the HAC.
It wasn’t a benchmark match, but Michel Der Zakarian will happily settle for it. Thanks to this point in the draw, the Hérault coach is in the balance sheet for unofficial retention in the elite. It could have been official with a victory, but their evening opponent also needed a positive result to move away from the relegation zone. In this exciting encounter from the first minutes, the locals took advantage of a lightning counter-attack to open the scoring thanks to Akor Adams (2nd, 1-0). The Nigerian international had not scored in Ligue 1 since October 29, 2023, and the Montpellier party seemed to be well underway. Nevertheless, Nantes reacted quickly thanks to Matthis Abline, skillful to equalize with a pointer following a service from Mostafa Mohamed (7th, 1-1).
Nantes will have to tighten up their game against the big guys
If the match started without preliminaries, the rest of the match offered Benjamin Lecomte the opportunity to shine. The goalkeeper celebrated his thirty-third birthday with a convincing performance with several saves at the end of the first period in front of Mostafa Mohamed (41st), Florent Mollet (44th) or the dangerous Abline (45th). Little by little, Nantes realized that victory was possible, but the visitors lacked precision to pocket three points on the road.
Technical leader of the MHSC, Téji Savanier did not find the frame of Alban Lafont (72nd). On the other side of the pitch, Mollet saw the frame slip away with a knee shot (67th) then Samuel Moutoussamy was unable to adjust Lecomte from the penalty area (81st).
In the last minutes of the game, Montpellier suffered two logical expulsions from Lucas Mincarelli as the last defender (92nd) and Arnaud Nordin for dangerous play (95th), but the pailladin boat did not sink. For Nantes, points must still be recovered during the last three days against Brest, Lille and Monaco. Quite a program…