Bordeaux suffer from continental effect

Bordeaux suffered a Europa League hangover in a disappointing 2-0 defeat at home to lowly Brest.

Bordeaux suffered a Europa League hangover in a disappointing 2-0 defeat at home to lowly Brest. A Benoit Tremoulinas own goal and a late Ahmed Kantari penalty confirmed a third consecutive Ligue 1 defeat for Les Girondins and left a dent in their hopes of a European spot. In contrast, Brest's first win in five attempts saw them jump to 14th in the table, five points clear of Evian who occupy the final relegation place. Bordeaux went close early on but Cheick Diabate headed a Jaroslav Plasil cross just over the crossbar before the visitors sprung into life. Florian Raspentino almost presented Jonathan Ayite with an open goal but for a telling intervention from Ludovic Sane and soon after, Mario Licka went even closer to opening the scoring but his goalbound lob was headed of the line by Julien Faubert. Brest's pressure paid off in the 20th minute when Licka found the back of the net with the help of Tremoulinas. Kamel Chafni and Ayite combined to set up the Czech midfielder, whose shot at goal was deflected beyond Cedric Carrasso. Bordeaux's Faubert had his side's best opportunity in the opening half but the former West Ham man was caught by surprise and failed to find the net from close range when the ball fell at his feet following a Plasil corner. Brest had their keeper to thank shortly before the break when a Tremoulinas cross eventually fell to Ludovic Obraniak but the Pole's powerful effort was turned away by Alexis Thebaux, who closed the angle down well. Bordeaux came out fighting after the restart and Obraniak went within a whisker of levelling the scores from a Nicolas Maurice-Belay cross - his effort was countered by defender Ismael Traore, though, and finished up the wrong side of the left post. Moments later the hosts thought they should have had a penalty when David Bellion's shot hit the hand of Kantari but referee Sebastian Moreira waved play on. Chafni, Ayite and Ousmane Coulibaly were all guilty of blazing efforts over the crossbar for Brest as the visitors continued to frustrate Bordeaux and hit them on the counter. The hosts' inability to work keeper Thebaux proved to be a telling factor and Henri Saivet continued that trend when he fired over from inside the area with 15 minutes left on the clock. Brest were having no such problems at the other end and Carrasso was called upon to turn Licka's effort away for a corner after Chafni had picked him out on the edge of the area. With eight minutes to go Brest completed a frustrating afternoon for Les Girondins when Sane brought down Larsen Toure in the area and the referee pointed at the spot. Kantari took responsibility and slammed the ball beyond Carrasso to guarantee the three points for his team.