Ligue 1 Review | Brest’s European dreams go up in smoke | OneFootball

Any hope that Stade Brestois had of continuing their European adventure into next season likely came to an end on Sunday following a 3-1 defeat to RC Lens. The loss curtailed a five-game unbeaten streak and cemented a seven-point gap between Brest and Olympique Lyonnais in sixth with only four games left to play.

It had always been unlikely that Brest would return to Europe at the first time of asking after making their debut in the Champions League this season. However, until the weekend, there had still been a sliver of belief. A thin squad that had looked stretched for most of the campaign had found its form and suffered only three defeats since the start of January.

Everything looked as if it was going according to plan when Pierre Lees-Melou helped Brest to an early lead at the Stade Francis-Le Blé. An equaliser from Goduine Koyalipou four minutes later would take some of the wind out of Les Pirates’ sails, but it would be the officiating that lasted in the memory of the home crowd.

‘We’ve been cheated’

Brest would be denied a penalty by VAR, before seeing Lens awarded one when Abdoulaye Ndiaye was sent off for denying a goal-scoring opportunity. It was a decision that looked harsh with the ball seeming to bounce off Ndiaye’s body before it hit his arm, and one that left Brest’s head coach Eric Roy throwing his cap to the ground in disgust.

Neil El Aynaoui scored from the spot kick to give Lens the lead going into the halftime break. However, Brest would prove to be hard to break down in the second half despite the man disadvantage, and it would take until the 90th minute for the substitute Wesley Saïd to make it three for Lens.

Following the game, Roy would furiously lament in his post-match press conference, “We have been cheated out of our end to the season.” The Brest manager put voice to the feeling that had sunk into the Francis-Le Blé, “Obviously, our season isn’t over, but I don’t see how with four games to go we’re going to make up seven points on the seventh-placed team. That’s what disappoints me, this match with all these adverse events concludes our season.”

Eric Roy out of contract in the summer

What’s next for Les Pirates and, more specifically, Roy becomes the big question that surrounds the club and one that is now far harder to ignore with little left to play for. Since joining Brest midway through the 2022/23 season, Roy has been one of the key architects in their astonishing rise, but his future remains vague, with his contract up at the end of the season.

Talks over an extension have reportedly stopped and started, with Roy revealing in March that there had “been no real advancement” in the conversations. However, following the defeat to Lens, Roy was able to provide a small update, “I’m happy here. I want to extend my contract. Why not? We need to come to an agreement, and for now, we haven’t come to one, because there have been no negotiations.”

If Roy were to extend his stay in Brest, the future of the club would feel a little more certain. He has proven his ability to shape his players into a top-half outfit, and next season, without the demands of midweek football, it stands to reason to believe that he could help Brest mount a more consistent challenge for European football.

This week’s Ligue 1 sub-plots

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GFFN | Nick Hartland