Stade Brestois 29 came from behind to beat 10-man Lorient 2-1 in the ‘Derby Breton’ to record their first away win of the season, and move out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
‘Les Merlus’ drew first blood on five minutes when Terem Moffi was released down the left flank and the forward cleverly nipped the ball around Jean-Kévin Duverne before squaring for Adrian Grbić, who couldn’t miss from close range as Lorient scored their ninth first-half goal out of a total of 13 this campaign. Shortly afterwards, Moffi was unable to sort his feet out after being put through and just before the 20-minute mark, Marco Bizot made a good stop to deny local boy Enzo Le Fée. However, Lorient suffered a significant setback when Jérôme Hergault took a heavy touch and trod on the right ankle of Jere Uronen. The 35-year-old was initially booked, but after referee Romain Lissorgue went over to the VAR monitor, that was overturned and a red card came out, to the horror of the home faithful. Brest were starting to apply more pressure, with Paul Nardi beating away an effort from Jérémy Le Douaron in the closing stages of the first half.
‘Les Pirates’ started the second half brightly and after Romain Faivre saw his penalty appeals waved away, the clever creator stepped up to stroke home from 12 yards minutes later following Léo Pétrot’s handball from Le Douaron’s flick-on, which was penalised by Lissorgue following another VAR review. Coming into this contest, only Troyes had dropped more points from winning positions in Ligue 1 than Christophe Pélissier’s men this season and Lorient’s customary flakiness when leading set up a fascinating last half an hour. Substitute Irvin Cardona thought he had bundled home the winner only to be flagged offside following a teasing cross from Romain Del Castillo, but Michel Der Zakarian’s men didn’t have to wait long to turn the contest on its head. A defensive header from Vincent Le Goff landed at the feet of Del Castillo and the winger assessed his options before laying it off to Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel, who skipped past a couple of challenges and drove across Nardi into the far corner via a deflection off former Huddersfield Town striker Steve Mounié, who was credited with the winner.
Brest still had some defending to do, and Moffi felt he could have had a penalty after being hauled down, but the visitors completed the job for a memorable win, which takes them above Bordeaux. Lorient meanwhile will be licking their wounds after a defeat which means they have dropped 15 points from winning positions in Ligue 1 this term – more than any other side in the division.