Football: Transitional League |05 August 2019

St Michel’s sweet victory over St Louis

St Michel swept aside St Louis to register a sweet 5-2 victory at Stad Linite on Saturday afternoon while on Praslin at Stad Amitié, Côte d’Or drew 1-1 with LightStars in the Inner island Transitional league.

Both results by our two representatives in the inter-club African competitions, namely SeyPearl league champions Côte d’Or and the Gran Kaz Cup winners St Louis, had a real consequence on the destiny of the Transitional league trophy as St Louis’ defeat ensured that Northern Dynamo are the winners of the Mahé first division transitional league whilst Côte d’Or’s draw meant that La Passe piped them to the Inner island title.

Livakely hat-trick sink St Louis

St Michel’s Malagasy midfielder Olivier Livakely scored a second half hat-trick to inspire St Michel to a 5-2 triumph in a highly entertaining match on Saturday afternoon watched by quite a decent crowd in a beautiful weather.

This match was played at a frenetic pace in the first period with Malagasy Evariste firing wide a half chance from a mistake by the St Louis defence as early as the 5th minute.

A minute later, Evariste won an aerial battle for a long ball with St Louis captain Bertrand Ester to feed Livakely whose low shot was spilt into corner by St Louis’ Malagasy goalkeeper Michel.

In the 7th minute, St Michel took the lead as Evariste twisted and turned to send in a teasing cross which St Louis skipper Esther missed to clear with his head and was punished by their former midfielder Yannick Julie whose header was touched by goalkeeper Michel on its way into the net for a 1-0 advantage for the eastern Mahé club.

St Louis then took control of this match and should have drawn level in the 11th minute from Malagasy Tahiry’s pinpoint cross to Gerick Vidot whose goal-bound header was blocked at point blank range by goalkeeper Jalyl Servina.

Seven minutes later, former St Louis goalkeeper Servina could not stop Vidot from levelling matters from a quickly taken free kick by captain Esther to Karl Hall who combined with Tahiry to release Vidot whose low shot beat the St Michel goalkeeper though he got a touch to the ball as it trickled over the goalline for a 1-1 score.

St Louis went close to take the lead in the 21st minute as the impressive Vidot picked out Dean Mothé who filtered a through ball to Elijah Tamboo who rounded goalkeeper Servina and tried to flick the ball into the net from a tight angle but the St Michel goal stopper recovered to clear the danger.

This match was heading for a 1-1 score at the interval when Livakely rode a couple of tackles on the edge of the penalty area on the stroke of half-time to set up Jean-Claude Berlouis who was not closed down by the St Louis defence allowing him to rifle a low shot into the bottom corner for his first goal for this club as he celebrated with a somersault flip to make it 2-1 at half-time.

St Louis restored parity four minutes into the second half when Tamboo skipped past a couple of defenders and the ball broke to Karl Hall who curled it into the bottom corner to make it 2-2.

St Michel though showed more determination as this thrilling match unfolded and in the 63rd minute, Julio Brown lofted a pass into the path of Evariste who played the ball across the St Louis goalmouth to Norris Bibi but he drilled the ball wide to fluff a good scoring chance.

At the other end, Tahiry wasted a superb opportunity in the 68th minute when he latched onto a brilliant pass by Vidot to put him in acres of space with only goalkeeper Servina to beat but he shot straight at him.

St Michel then seized control of this match as they bossed the midfield through captain Hassan Aly and they hit St Louis on the counter in the 70th minute as Livakely played an inch-perfect cross to Evariste in the penalty area and he stabbed the ball past goalkeeper Michel for a 3-2 lead.

Goalkeeper Servina then went on to provoke the St Louis supporters who had been taunting him and he was duly booked by referee Emile Fred and as he trawled back to his goal, he was almost caught off guard by Hall from the restart as Hall thumped a long range effort from the centre line which appeared to be dipping in goal only for a last ditch intervention by goalkeeper Servina to save his blushes.

St Louis were caught napping in the 83rd minute as St Michel’s substitute Jimmy Bijoux broke clear to sprung the St Louis offside trap but goalkeeper Michel was out in a flash to clear the ball to substitute Yohan Waye-Hive but he failed to clear the danger as he dilly dallied on the ball and was robbed of it and Aly threaded it to Livakely who surged into the St Louis penalty area to coolly chip goalkeeper Michel to make it 4-2

St Michel won a penalty in injury time when Yohan Waye-Hive was adjudged to have brought down Norris Bibi by referee Emile Fred after Bibi was picked out by the outstanding Livakely and the St Louis player was yellow carded as he tried to plead his innocence.

Livakely stepped up to take the spot kick and he rammed the ball past a stranded goalkeeper Michel to complete his fantastic hat-trick and inspire St Michel to inflict a first defeat on their bitter rivals in this competition and St Louis even had Yohan Waye-Hive issued with a second yellow card at the final whistle as he had a go at referee Fred to earn him a red card.

But St Michel manager Andrew Jean-Louis was more focused on this highly enthralling football match by the two great rivals when he spoke to Sports NATION after the final whistle.

“It was a really wonderful match with some flowing football where our opponents had the edge in the first half but then we took control of the midfield after the interval and had the measure of our opponents and it was nice to beat them after playing second fiddle to them over the last two seasons and hopefully we will maintain this momentum as I praise my players for a good performance,” St Michel manager Jean-Louis said.

As for St Louis coach Michel Renaud, he felt his team lost their way and organisation after half-time and it proved costly.

“We started slowly but then got going but gifted our opponents two goals through slack marking and in the second half, we lost our organisation as we made silly mistakes and did not take our chances and were punished by our opponents on the counter attack. We must now try to correct our mistakes in our African club competition away match,” St Louis coach Renaud told Sports NATION.

Côte d’Or and LightStars share the spoils

SeyPearl league champions Côte d’Or could only manage a 1-1 draw against their neighbours LightStars on Saturday afternoon at Stad Amitié.

Côte d’Or had to win this match to claim the Inner Island transitional league but after a goalless first half, former Foresters striker Ugandan Tony Kizito broke the deadlock three minutes in the second period to give them a 1-0 lead.

2018 Airtel Cup winners LightStars though levelled matters in the 80th minute courtesy of a strike by former Côte d’Or forward, Malagasy Paul Bruyelle to make it 1-1 as the two teams shared the spoils. This result helped La Digue side La Passe to win the Inner island inaugural Transitional league on goal difference.

R. J-L.