First home win of the season! (2-0)

Paolo Sousa sent out a side geared towards intensive midfield pressing and a high defensive line, and that tactic soon paid dividends. Nicolas de Préville won the first corner of the match when Oukidja pushed away his goalbound strike. Enock Kwateng stepped up to take the set piece, finding Jimmy Briand who smashed in a volley to open the score (7’). Galvanised by this early lead, Bordeaux kept on pushing and piled the pressure on this shaky-looking Metz side. When Ui-Jo Hwang intercepted a wayward pass on the half way line his rapid through ball left Nicolas de Préville with plenty of space in which to line up his powerful shot: 2-0 to the Girondins (9’). Bordeaux were off to the perfect start. But Metz were not prepared to go down without a fight: both N’Guette (21’) and Angban (23’) tried their luck but ran up against a solid Bordeaux defence. Vincent Hognon's side began to see more of the ball in midfield, but struggled to create any meaningful chances on goal. Their best opportunities were a header from Maiga (41’) and a shot from N’Guette, both dealt with by Benoit Costil with a minimum of fuss. Bordeaux were 2-0 up at the break. Shortly after the break the visitors thought they had pulled one back, but Diallo's 30 metre lob was ruled offside. Metz were now seeing more of the ball, with Bordeaux procède creating some dangerous situations on the counter. One particularly fluid collective movement ended up with Aurélien Tchouaméni (53’) firing his shot into the arms of the Metz keeper. Back at the other end, Diallo found himself one-on-one with Benoit Costil but the Girondins keeper came out on top (69’). To their credit, Metz never stopped pushing and did cause plenty of problems for Bordeaux. Fresh legs in the form of Yacine Adli (54’) and Josh Maja (75’) helped to perk the Girondins up a bit, and Samuel Kalu was a constant threat in the last fifteen minutes, hitting the cross bar (75’) and firing just wide shortly afterwards (77’). The pace slowed in the last 10 minutes and the passing precision began to drop off. Bordeaux saw off the last few Metz attacks to preserve their two goal lead, taking three crucial points from a freshly-promoted side whose aggressive playing style surely bodes well for their top flight future. The Girondins march on, and will be looking to keep this good run going next Saturday 21st September (KO 8pm) against Brest.