After an uncertain start-up, in which they avoided defeat with difficulties, Monaco reflected their improvement this Sunday in the second day of Ligue 1 by beating Metz at home (0-1), despite playing the entire second half with ten footballers. The Monegasques are fifth.
The team of Croatian Niko Kovac, former Bayern coach, who was fired last December, left the Saint Symphorien municipal stadium with three points thanks to a goal from Benoit Badiashile in the 22nd minute.
They resisted with ten for the expulsion of Youssouf Fofana in the 47th minute to the attempt to react by Metz, unable to beat visiting goal Benjamin Leconte.
With a draw and a defeat, Monaco is part of the top of the table equaled on points with Bordeaux (2nd), which also accumulates four points with their victory in the Angers field (0-2) with goals from the Nigerian Josh Maja and the Croatian Toma Basic, who in three minutes before half an hour unbalanced the crash.
The Metz-Monaco summary
In that area there is also Lille, to which Jonathan Bamba, passing the Turkish Burak Yilmaz, gave him the first victory of the course, in Reims (0-1). Like Monaco and Girondins, two points separate them from Nice, the only one so far with full victories.
Nantes maintained the type against Nimes (2-1) despite playing a large part of the match with one less man due to the red card that Imran Luza saw after the break and the final stretch with nine players after the second yellow to Brazilian Fabio .
At that time the meeting was not entirely defined. Brazilian Andrei Girotto, in the 11th minute, and Imran Louza, from a penalty, at half an hour, put the duel on track for the local team, who feared for their good work after the break. In the intermission, Louza left the field after seeing the red card and in 57, the Algerian Zinedine Ferhat closed the gap.
When Brazilian Fabio saw the second yellow, there were still ten minutes to go, but Nantes held out and Nimes ran out of points.
Romain Hamouma was the scorer of the session. His double against Lorient helped Claude Puel's Saint-Étienne start the season with their first win (2-0).