SCO Angers breaks a new record of consecutive defeats

Angers set a new record in the elite of French football by suffering a 13th defeat in a row, after being beaten 2-1 by Ajaccio on Wednesday at the Raymond-Kopa stadium. The previous record of 12 consecutive defeats was set by the Cercle Athlétique Paris during the 1933-1934 season. Dijon had equalized it in the spring of 2021 and Angers had reached it on Sunday with its heavy 4-0 defeat at Brest. Wednesday against Ajaccio, the SCO had however made a serious start to the match by opening the scoring by Sima (13th), perfectly served in depth by his captain Bentaleb and who crossed his shot from the left in a tight angle to deceive the goalkeeper .

The SCO lost the thread of the match

But the alert sounded the following minute on a powerful strike from Belaïli repelled with the fingertips by the Angevin goalkeeper Bunardini to crash against the crossbar (14th). It was Soumano who, barely entering the game (64th) took advantage of the defensive passivity of the SCO to equalize with a cross shot (1-1 in the 65th) and instill doubt in the defense of Angers. The SCO then lost the thread of the match: Doumbia, guilty of a huge sole, was excluded (78th) after video viewing. And the coup de grace came at the very end of the match with the recovery of El Idrissy (90 + 4th).

With this 13th defeat in a row, the ax of relegation is getting ever closer. The Angevins occupy the last place in Ligue 1 with eight small points and now cross 10 lengths from the first non-relegation. Since wins are credited with three points in the top flight, only five teams have moved to such depths mid-season. They all finished their season in last place. And the winter transfer window will probably not help the affairs of the SCO, whose payroll is supervised by the financial policeman of French football.

The two best Angers players left for the transfer window

To bail out the coffers, the club let go of its two best players, Azzedine Ounahi (Marseille) and Solfiane Boufal (Qatar), brilliant semi-finalists at the World Cup with Morocco. But the transfers took place just before the closing, and at far lower prices than President Saïd Chabane had hoped for, leaving Angers neither the time nor the means to strengthen themselves. The club only registered two new players, striker Ibrahima Niane (Metz) and defender Faouizi Ghoulan (free), who failed to qualify in time to be fielded on Wednesday.

Since returning to the top flight in 2015, Angers has experienced ups and downs, such as a Coupe de France final in 2017, and many bad spells, always overcome under the leadership of its emblematic coach Stéphane Moulin. But Moulin has chosen to leave in 2021, after 10 years at the head of the team, replaced by Gérald Baticle. And the players on whom Moulin had relied followed last summer and with a deeply overhauled workforce, the season took on the appearance of a slow descent into hell.

The replacement of Baticle by Abdel Bouhazama during the truce of the World Cup did not stop the spiral of defeats. The only glimmer: after winning on penalties against Strasbourg then 1-0 against a team from R1 (5th div.) Alsatian, the Angevins are still in the race for the Coupe de France.