Two short laps and then goes: the European adventure of Reims stopped in the third qualifying round after a loss on penalties (0-0, 4-1 on the tab) Thursday on the lawn of the Hungarians by Fehervar.
A week after their difficult victory on the lawn of Servette de Genève (1-0), where he found the European scene after 57 years of absence, the Champagne club fell quite logically in an opponent yet within his reach.
Barely in the league, where they point to the penultimate place with only one point in four games, David Guion's men again made a poor copy and failed to reassure themselves.
The return of the irremovable central defender and captain Yunis Abdelhamid, who had been contaminated by the Covid-19 and had not been able to play in Switzerland, certainly offered more stability to the Reims rearguard, but as since the At the start of the season, the Champagne offensive animation was weak or almost non-existent.
Fehervar, vice-champion of Hungary last season, was much more inspired than Reims, like the two Frenchmen Lyes Houri and Loïc Négo, trained respectively in Valenciennes and Nantes.
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- The film of the meeting
Thus, the former Valenciennois, lonely in the area, chained a control of the chest and a powerful strike which flew above the Champagne goal (23rd).
Then goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic blocked a floating shot from Boban Nikolov (26 ').
On a free kick, Houri caused a new fear in Rémois but his attempt failed at the foot of the right post (30th).
The Champenois, they lacked verticality and precision in the last thirty meters to really worry Fehervar.
The first opportunity was the work of Arber Zeneli: after a superb slalom in the opponent's area, the Kosovar international fired a shot which was deflected for a corner (19th).
Then a low center from Thomas Foket was narrowly cleared by the Magyar defense (40th).
Technical waste
The second period, marked by a lot of technical waste on both sides, was even more closed, not to say boring, than the first.
It was not until the last minutes to see some situations, with a nice service in the area of Huri for Ivan Petryak, but Rajkovic was still vigilant (86th), just like on a new free kick from the former Valenciennois (90th ).
On the Reims side, after a nice overflow, Anastasios Donis centered for Kaj Sierhuis, whose recovery was captured by Adam Kovaksic (87th).
During extra time, Reims took the upper hand physically over his opponent, without however succeeding in finding the fault, despite a nice strike from El Bilal Touré pushed back by the Hungarian goalkeeper (105th).
The Rémois even finished the game at ten after the exclusion of Thomas Foket for a second warning (115th) ...
Finally, Reims cracked during the penalties, with two attempts missed by Boulaye Dia and Abdelhamid.
Rajkovic, yet a penalty specialist with 5 out of 6 saves in L1, did not manage to push back a single shot and the Hungarians won the session 4 to 1. The Rémois will have to react quickly in Ligue 1 but will have a lot to do since 'they will face Paris SG on Sunday and Rennes next week.
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