Brest stave off TFC fight-back to keep European hopes alive

Éric Roy's Pirates travelled down to the Rose City on a sunny spring Sunday afternoon hoping to keep their faint hopes of European qualification alive, with Toulouse looking to address some worrying home form in recent weeks. The start was far from ideal for Carles Martinez Novell's side…

The first game of a packed Sunday of Ligue 1 McDonald's action at the Toulouse Stadium, it was Les Ti'zefs who started off on the front foot in emphatic fashion when 19-year-old Justin Bourgault collected from a clearance on the edge of the box and volleyed home an unstoppable strike which kissed the bar on the way in past Guillaume Restes (22'). It was only a matter of minutes before Brest doubled their advantage, as Periera Lage stormed in behind the Toulousain backline and left Charlie Cresswell in his wake. The midfielder then cut inside and unleashed a clinical strike past Restes. With a solid backline and increasing confidence, Brest would further inflict some damage on their hosts, who have more often than not struggled at the Toulouse Stadium this season (26').

This time Ludovic Ajorque's deflected strike wasn't dealt with by an off-balance Mark Mckenzie, with the ball falling at the feet of Brest substitute Abdallah Sima whose first attempt was saved by Restes before reacting quickly to poke home the Breton side's third strike of the game (62').

Les Violets fight back, but…

TFC captain Vincent Sierro sounded the revolt, matching the early outstanding strike by Bourgault with an even better volley from 20 yards out which arrowed into the top left corner (65'). A re-energised Toulouse then would throw everything offensively forward to try and get back into the game, and they would get another back as Josh King latched onto Noah Edjouma's cushioned header with a first time poke to set up a grandstand finish with ten minutes of normal time to go (78'). Yet it was Brest that had the last laugh, as Roy's men hit devastatingly on the counter with Periera Lage provided the cross for Ajorque to cleverly flick to Mahdi Camara, who tapped home past Restes to effectively seal the three points for Les Pirates and keep their dreams of Europe alive (88').

Match Reaction

Joshua King (Toulouse): "Everyone is a defender and attackers, we need to go again next week. The goal is to finish as high as possible. We have seven games but we need to get the most out of those games."

Kenny Lala (Stade Brestois): "It's a stadium where we've entertained a lot. It did us well to score the fourth goal, offensively we had a lot of force but we needed to be better defensively, it's a bit of our weak point at the moment. Europe? We're not thinking about that but focussing on finishing as high as we can at the end of the season."