Nîmes 2-0 Hyères: Victory at Antonins Stadium

When the Nîmes – Hyères kickoff was given, we knew that the Crocos were going to score in the first period. Facing the south stand of the Antonins, and its white-hot kop, Mickaël Gas’s men are unplayable and always make the nets shake.

On Saturday, nothing changed in good habits during NO’s success (2-0) against the Varois. A thunderous start, constant pressing and, after not even a quarter of an hour, by the time Depres had his head on target (3rd) and Kubota saw his head slammed by Andreani, the Var goalkeeper, for a corner (9th), it was defender Dramé who found the opening, opportunistic with a header following a corner from Orinel poorly repelled by the Hyéroise defense (1-0, 10th). The first achievement of the croc recruit and the 14th goal scored by the Nîmes, on the south stand side.

In the second half, in Hyères the ball… in Nîmes the goal

Pires’ partners seemed to have done the hardest part, leading the score at home. From his goal, goalkeeper Salamone saw it from a long way away, he who had done the job and had been vigilant from the 5th minute, repelling with his foot an attempt by the Var striker, Fofana.

At the break, Nîmes was quite logically in the lead. In the second half, the Crocos seemed to be caught between the desire to score a second goal and not to concede one. Opposite, Hyères offered some play, circulating the ball well until reaching the last 30 meters, where everything becomes complicated for the penultimate attack of the group (9 goals scored).

Orinel – Depres, perfect understanding

The heads of Varois Buisson, on a cross from Gazzaoui (49th) then on an offering from the very interesting Moutault (65th), missed. Hyères had missed his chance and, faced with this Nîmes, that is unforgiving. Clinical and surgical, the Gardois doubled the score through Orinel, offering themselves a one-two with Depres before beating Andreani closely (2-0, 77th).

Two minutes later, Khasa could have worsened the score without his lost face-to-face with Andreani (79th). In the process, or almost, Depres could have gone for his goal if his header had not found the crossbar on a new offering from Orinel (83rd).

Record attendance at Antonins

The last opportunity of this meeting was to the credit of Hyères but, here again, Fofana showed himself to be too uninspired and, above all, far too predictable, opening his foot and giving the information to Salamone, who intervened (86th).

In front of 5,590 spectators, a record attendance at the Antonins, Nîmes once again proved itself sovereign. So good at home.