Like every day from Monday to Friday, get the gist of Gard’s sports news in a few bits of information.

Nimes Olympic

Benrahou and Doucoure back. For his second meeting with the Crocodiles, coach Frédéric Bompard has kept 18 players and there are two changes from the reception of Guingamp last Monday. Retiring, injured, are midfielder Lamine Fomba, who had played in all Ligue 2 games this season (captained seven times under Nicolas Usaï), and striker Moussa Koné (16 games and four goals all competitions combined in the current exercise). They are numerically replaced by Yassine Benrahou (6 games) who returns from pubalgia and has not started since August 30 (Grenoble – Nîmes 3-2) and striker Mahamadou Doucouré who has not played in the first team since January 8 and has a victory in Dijon 2-1. The possible starting line-up: Maraval – Labonne, De Gevigney, Djiga, Burner, – Delpech, N’Guessan, Thomassen – Pagis, Tchokounté, Saïd. Replacements: Dias, Guessoum, Poulain, Vargas, Benrahou, Benezet and Doucouré.

The Annecy group. Laurent Guyot, the coach of the Annecy football club, made only one change in his group on Monday compared to the Hauts-Savoyards’ 2-1 victory over Saint-Étienne. Young central defender Nathan Falconnier, who did not play against the Greens, leaves his place to Bissenty Mendy, another axial defender. Left winger Jean-Jacques Rocchi and defensive midfielder Vincent Pajot will be part of the Annecy group for an uncertain time, details of which are here: Escales, Callens, Lajugie, Mendy, Jean, Bastian, Goncalves – Temanfo, Pajot, Kashi, Demoncy , Billemaz, Shamal, Rocchi-Sahi, Bosetti, Testud, Baldé.

A balanced balance. The Annecy Football Club was founded in 1927, that is, 10 years before the Nîmes Olympique. The two clubs met for the first time during World War II in the southern zone of the French championship (equal to D2 at the time) and more specifically during the 1942-43 season. The Hauts-Savoyards draw 1-1 at home, win 2-1 in Nîmes, but lose their professional status at the end of the season. After that, the two clubs lost track of each other for decades only to meet again for three consecutive seasons from 1988 to 1991. . Despite this difference in position, the duels are often very tight, except in 1989 when the FCA is pulverized 5-1 at the Jean-Bouin stadium. But in four confrontations at the Parc des Sports, Nîmes has never beaten Olympique Annecy (2 draws and 2 losses). The record (1942-1991) is tied with three wins for each team and two draws (12 goals for Nîmes and 9 for Annecy). For the record, the Crocodiles also came to the Parc des Sports to take on Croix-de-Savoie, Evian-Thonon-Gaillard and even Bastia in a D2 match (April 1989) on neutral ground, with 2- 1 won by the Nîmes trained by Bernard Boissier with goals from Noël Vidot and Olivier Jannuzzi.

A story about men. While the Crocodiles and the “Reds” don’t have much of a history in common, the two clubs are linked by the names of a few players. Among them we see Paul Carrier and Alioune Diop who wore the jersey of Nîmes in the great years (1950-1960). But the most famous remains the great Bernard Rahis, twice finalist of the Coupe de France with the NO (1958 and 1961). The French international ended his playing career in Annecy in 1966. Still in the glorious veteran category there is defender Stanislas Golinski, finalist in the 1958 Coupe de France with Nîmes and who coached Annecy from 1958 to 1964 and from 1969 to 1971. In a more recent period, Marcel Levasseur and Eloge Enza-Yamissi went through both clubs. Finally, if he has never played there, the former crocodile (and Alésien), Faouzi Alidra, is a native of the prefecture of Haute-Savoie.