Auxerre came from behind to beat Clermont Foot 4-3 at home in a Club Friendlies match on Thursday. The result gives them one more point in their recent run of form, though neither side is competing for anything tangible right now.
R. Faivre opened the scoring in the thirty-first minute, but by then Clermont had turned the game around. C. Archer struck twice in quick succession, the first in the fiftieth and the second just three minutes later. And here's the thing — Auxerre responded through R. Labeau Lascary in the fifty-ninth, then E. Cantero took the lead in the sixty-ninth.
The match turned sharp in the closing stages. F. Bianchini converted a penalty in the seventy-second, and after S. Diomande was sent off in the seventy-fifth, Bianchini added a second spot-kick at the seventy-sixth. To be fair, the red card changed everything, and Clermont took advantage of the numerical edge.
Auxerre's recent record shows they've been inconsistent. They beat Brest 2-1 and Nice 1-0 in their last two outings, but those results came after losses to Lyon and Angers. Clermont have been harder to read — draws with Grenoble, Boulogne and Dunkirk, with no wins in their last five matches.
What matters is that Auxerre saw out the game despite being reduced to ten men. They cannot afford another slip in these friendlies if they want to build momentum. The scoreline tells one story; the way it unfolded tells another.
