The comic debut of a star in Kuzyaev’s team. He was able to score with the first touch and leave in 2 minutes.

The comic debut of a star in Kuzyaev’s team. He was able to score with the first touch and leave in 2 minutes.

Anatoly Romanov November 26, 2023, 19:30 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.

And the Russian was close to providing the assist at the end.

Le Havre, with Russian midfielder Daler Kuzyaev, extended its unbeaten streak in Ligue 1 to five games.

Kuzyaev, as usual, came out in Le Havre’s starting eleven and acted as a central midfielder. Sometimes the team’s coach, Luca Elsner, uses a tactical model with three central defenders, but in Nantes he actually mirrored the opponent’s 4-2-3-1 formation. However, for the Russian legionnaire, in general, nothing has changed. Daler had to work a lot without the ball, connecting the midline with the line of attack. The latter was objectively more difficult to do, as Le Havre played openly to tie, defended with a medium or low block and controlled the ball only 30% of the time.

“Le Havre” tried to advance and press, but in the end the scythe found a stone. Football did not excite the aesthete. While watching this match, I remembered the words Thierry Henry said the other day: “It’s not even that the lack of goals makes the French championship a boring league. The fact is that there are no interesting actions here, nor shots on goal.” The legend was criticized by the Ligue 1 “verdict”, but in reality the truth is somewhere in between. Alexander Golovin’s Monaco and PSG played a brilliant match with seven goals, while watching football in Nantes can give you a headache.

How Kuzyaev played against Golovin in League 1:

Golovin and Kuzyaev committed suicide in France! The game had a strange ending

In the first half, the statistics hinted at the total superiority of the locals: shots 10:1, from the area 8:0. However, the number of hits speaks more about the nature of this match: 1:0. Nantes was in a hurry to live and shoot, but most often created some kind of danger only from set pieces. An RPL player would only be impressed by football in Nantes from an athletic point of view, but on the football field there was definitely a lack of reflection.

The second half is movement on the same rails. Some couldn’t, others couldn’t and really didn’t want to. Kuzyaev opened up on a run in midfield and called for a forward pass, and the Le Havre defender rolled towards the goalkeeper. Daler simply threw up his hands in bewilderment. If anything would have made the Nantes game spectacular it would have been a goal. Kuzyaev himself had the opportunity to score in the 54th minute, when he dragged the ball into the area and shot from the semicircle. Unfortunately, the Russian’s shot, Le Havre’s first after the break, was blocked by the opponent.

And halfway through, at least something interesting happened. Former player of the Marseille and Premier League clubs, star of the Ghana national team, Andre Ayew, debuted for Le Havre, almost scored with the first touch of a header (of course, on a set piece), and two minutes after his appearance on the field… he was gone! Portuguese referee Miguel Nogueira, who refereed this match, showed Ayew the red card for attacking. André did not want to go to the locker room for a long time, he shook his head, suggested something to the referee and even to his opponents, but in the end he left the pitch. The VAR confirmed the referee’s decision. Coach Elsner was faceless.

But the most striking thing is that even playing 11 against 10, little changed. Regarding shots on goal in the second half, the locals won 2-0 and their best attack ended with Ganago’s goal due to a “millimeter” offside. Kuzyaev played a normal game, neither bad nor outstanding. At the same time, in added time, Daler created a scoring chance for Ndiaye, who shot high. Final statistics of the Russian midfielder: 53 touches of the ball, one shot, 76% accurate passes, one pass under attack, two interceptions, one tackle, one foul and one blocked shot each.