more leader than ever, Auxerre beats Troyes and widens the gap in the lead

AJA won on the ground of its neighbor Trojan this Monday, during the last match of the 31st day.

Leader Auxerre dominated Troyes 2-0, notably with a gag goal, and widened the gap on their rivals at the top of the Ligue 2 standings, Monday at the end of the 31st day. With seven days remaining, Christophe Pélissier’s men have 61 points, seven lengths ahead of their new runner-up, Saint-Etienne, and over Angers (3rd with the same number of points but ahead of the Greens on goal difference) . Bad operation on the other hand for Troyes (35 pts), which remains 17th and first relegated one point behind Annecy.

AJA, deprived of its Brazilian captain Jubal, injured, but with its metronome Gauthier Hein returning from suspension and Gideon Mensah returning from injury, had difficulty entering the match, hampered by the enthusiasm of the Trojans. With a rather offensive team, ESTAC posed problems for the Auxerre defense which multiplied restart errors and offered dangerous situations poorly exploited by the visitors. On a high recovery, Renaud Ripart launched behind the defense was caught at the last minute when he was armed with a corner tackle (10th).

Hazardous raise

If the game became considerably balanced over the minutes, with the Burgundians finally more enterprising, it was the Aubois who were the most dangerous in front of goal. Like M’Changama (39th) who sent shivers through the well-stocked stands of the Abbé-Deschamps stadium where nearly 15,000 spectators took their seats for this derby. A few minutes earlier, it was the approximately 500 supporters from Troyes who had gasped after seeing Sinayoko’s half-volley brush against goalkeeper Alemdar’s post (28th).

Upon returning from the locker room, the situation changed little, but the Icaunais players gradually took control of the match and it was quite logical that they opened the scoring with a penalty following a hand fault in the surface, transformed by Ado Onaiwu (50th). Especially since ESTAC’s efforts were weighed down by Alemdar’s hazardous recovery, intercepted by Sinayoko who scored without batting an eyelid (2-0, 70th), sealing Auxerre’s 17th victory in the league this season. In the number of confrontations with its northern rival, AJA recorded a tenth success against 12 for Troyes and seven draws.