Girondins cruise past Nîmes [2-0]

77th minute: Hatem Ben Arfa breaks free down the right flank in inimitable fashion. Nîmes' left back sees no better option than to haul him down inside the box. Jimmy Briand steps up to slot home the penalty… and score his hundredth goal in Ligue 1 (79’) !

With the rain beating down on an eerily empty stadium, the game got off to a tentative start. The best chances came from set pieces, with Nicolas de Préville firing a decent corner in to the front post early on (4’). Up the other end, Lucas Deaux came close with a header from another corner (11’). The first real test came courtesy of Lamine Fomba, whose shot from the edge of the box drew a snap save from Benoît Costil (23’). New signing Hatem Ben Arfa made his presence felt, nearly converting a pass from Benito (26’) and later floating a promising free kick onto the head of Pablo (45+3’). In the final action before half time, Oudin saw his well-struck shot tipped onto the crossbar by Baptiste Reynet (45+4’).

In the 53rd minute, Loris Benito nutmegged his marker and hooked the ball back for Hatem Ben Arfa, whose mazy run was cut short in extremis by the visitors' defence. The playmaker was soon back on the attack, with a shot which took a deflection to fly just wide of the mark (62’). Bordeaux and Nîmes were fairly evenly-matched thus far, with both sides struggling to find an opening. Lamine Fomba had another shot turned awy by Benoît Costil (67’). But the whole game changed in the space of five minutes: first he scored the penalty, and then supersub Jimmy Briand provided his second assist of the season to tee up Rémi Oudin, whose blazing left-footed shot left Baptiste Reynet no chance (81’).

In the end it could have been much worse for the visitors, were it not for some impressive late saves from the Nîmes keeper to deny Rémi Oudin and Mehdi Zerkane (90+1’). Aribi had one more chance for the Crocodiles, but Benoît Costil handled it with impeccable calm and the referee promptly blew up for full time (90+4’). In a virtual repeat of the game against Angers, the whole game hinged upon a few key minutes. Jean-Louis Gasset's substitutions proved to be decisive yet again, with Jimmy Briand snagging his 100th league goal. The Girondins will be back in action against Monaco next Sunday at 17:00. Allez Bordeaux !