Brest continue good form with battling victory over Reims
Reims’ six-match unbeaten run ended last time out, and they were in for more disappointment in the opening stages of this clash. A disastrous start saw Brest awarded a penalty inside the opening two minutes when Joseph Okumu was perhaps harshly adjudged to have handled Soumaila Coulibaly’s header in the area.
Romain Faivre greatly accepted the gift by dispatching the resulting spot-kick to fire the visitors into an early lead, which was soon doubled when Faivre turned provider, freeing Mama Balde to double Brest’s advantage.
That two-goal cushion didn’t last too long, however, as Reims hit back in contentious circumstances. Okumu made amends for the penalty he’d given away earlier by powering home from a corner, but a lengthy VAR check almost chalked the goal off with Brest believing Keito Nakamura was in the eyeline of Marco Bizot from Okumu’s header.
Reims had all the momentum heading into half-time, but after the break, they squandered a gilt-edged chance to get back into the game. Junya Itō was the man who wasted it, blazing over after he was teed up inside the area by Oumar Diakite.
Ibrahim Salah almost placed the game beyond the hosts’ reach when he thought he’d added a third, but the offside flag kept Reims’ hopes alive. The hosts weren’t doing much to boost their hopes of getting back into the game though, struggling to create anything in the final third.
Desperation was setting in for Reims in the closing stages, and their best chance of snatching an unlikely point came and went when Okumu, who was in the thick of the action all night, powered over a header despite being left unmarked a matter of yards from goal.
Brest held on valiantly from there to secure a win that stretches their unbeaten H2H run to six matches, while tonight’s victory catapults them to eighth in the table, right back into the European picture and just two places behind Reims.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Romain Faivre (Brest)