French fans have been unable to behave themselves lately. Whether it’s Marseille ultras storming the training grounds, Marseille and Nice fans brawling during a match or what happened during the Saint-Étienne vs Angers match on Friday, Ligue 1 fans have become a bit too much a story in 2021.
On Friday, fans threw dozens of flares onto the pitch before kickoff of Saint-Étienne’s home game against Angers at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, delaying the match for almost an hour before the sides played to a 2-2 draw.
The flares managed to burn a hole in one of the goal nets, which only added to the delay. That’s either a really impressive throw to hit the net or just luck/pure number of flares thrown at the goal.
The reason for the hissy fit from the fans seems to stem from Saint-Étienne’s start to the 2021-22 season. The Saints entered the weekend propping up the Ligue 1 table with four points from 10 matches and no wins.
Fans reportedly held banners criticizing Saint-Étienne manager Claude Puel, the former Leicester City boss struggling after finishing 11th last season.
When the match finally kicked off — with ashy burns pockmarking the pitch — it didn’t get much better for Saint-Étienne. Ismaël Traoré and Angelo Fulgini gave Angers a two-goal lead by the 56th minute.
Wahbi Khazri pulled one back six minutes later with a well-struck free kick that tested the replaced net in the goal.
In the fourth of four added minutes of stoppage time, Mickael Nade headed in a late, late equalizer to secure just the fifth point of the season for the Saints as the match finished 2-2. At least for now, Saint-Étienne is even with 19th-place Brest with five points, albeit with a worse goal difference.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.