Season reviews 2018/19 – FootballMind

Dijon FCO 2018-19 Season Review.

Dijon came into the new season off the back of an extremely energetic summer which seen them sign 7 players, adding a mix of talent in both young gifted players with a lot of potential such as then 25 year-old Naïm Sliti, their eventual hero and 32 year-old Yoann Gourcuff, the player formerly signed by French counterparts Lyon for £22m . In the same window Dijon also seen a lot of players exit the club with 9 players leaving, only Baptiste Reynet warranting a fee.

This decent transfer window seen Dijon make a very assured start to the season – winning their first three games, including a 4-0 battering of OGC Nice but this positive start began to wear off rather fastly with Olivier Dall’Oglio’s side failing to win in Ligue 1 for the next 12 games prior to a 2-1 win against Guingamp. In this period of time Dijon did knock Caen out the Coupe De la Ligue though.

Dijon were then defeated in the next three games that came before the short winter break. This poor spell of form signalling the end of Dall’Oglio’s spell at the Stade Gaston Gérard. David Linarès took control for one game, a 3-1 win against Schiltigheim before Antoine Kombouaré took the job for the rest of the season.

Dijon had quite a lethargic winter window. Signing just the one player, a 23 year-old winger from Elche, Sory Kaba. Albeit it was for €4m. Dijon also lost a lot of their prior-mentioned experience in this window with Yoann Gourcuff and Laurent Ciman leaving the club after playing a combined amount of 17 games this season with Gourcuff not completing over 31 minutes in any games.

Kombouaré’s spell at the club began well with 3 wins in his first 6 games but it went a little downhill from here with Dijon losing their next 6 games and failing to win in the 4 that followed. This run making them near favourites for relegation but The Mustards never gave up and their good form in their last 8 games kept them in with a chance of survival. Winning away to Lyon and at home to Strasbourg in the most dramatic fashion among other good wins Dijon made sure they had the chance to stay in the top flight.

On the final game week of the Ligue 1 campaign, Dijon took on Toulouse, needing a win to stay away from automatic relegation and a 2-1 victory was enough to book Dijon a play-off place and steer them clear of Ligue 2, for atleast 6 days.

In this defining play-off game, Dijon faced Lens, the 5th placed team in Ligue 2. Dijon’s penultimate game of the season began rather shaky with Jeanricner Bellegarde giving Lens the lead in the 49th minute but Dijon managed to claw it back with Chang-Hook Kwon scoring another vital goal allowing Dijon to come away with the away goal advantage even if they only managed a 1-1 draw.

Just last night, Dijon played there biggest game of the season, an absolute must win. The second leg of the play-off final. Dijon had the home advantage with the Stade Gaston Gérard on their side. They started early with star player Naïm Sliti scoring on the 28th minute mark before Lens equalised shortly 10 minutes after. Wesley Said scored the goal which looked to be the one to keep Dijon in the top flight and Naïm Sliti made sure it was with a 91st minute goal pulling the curtains on a hectic and long season for Dijon.

SM Caen 2018-19 Season Review

On the night of this being written, Caens fate has been sealed as they fell 1-0 to Bordeaux which seen them relegated to Ligue 2 for the first time since 2011-12 but it could have been so different.

In the summer of 2018, Caen underwent a massive overhaul which seen 13 players departing including their talented winger, 19 year old, Yann Karamoh who joined Inter Milan for €6.6m, Caens 4th most expensive export. This overhaul also seen Caen bring in 11 new players, splashing out on a new attack.

The campaign started off rather positive for Caen losing only one game out of the first five which was against the unstoppable PSG. This steady form continued all through September until the start of October where they lost to Marseille sparking a 10 game win-less run until they bet Toulouse 2-1 half-way through December, gaining their first win in almost three months.

One positive of Caen’s rather bleak season was their run in the Coupe de France where they reached the Quarter Finals via a 1-0 win over the Ligue 2 punching bag Red Star, an excellent 6-0 win away to 6th tier outfit Viry-Chatillon and a penalties win against Championnat National 3 team SC Bastia before being dumped out by a strong Lyon.

January came around and things didn’t get much better for Caen with news breaking out that star performer Frederic Guilbert would be joining Aston Villa when the season is over and Caen’s only addition would be Aly Ndom on loan from Stade Reims.

January was rounded off with a loss to Montpellier, who this time kick-started an 8 match streak where Caen couldn’t find a win but finally on the last day of March, they picked up a league win, a 1-0 victory away in Monaco. The first one since Toulouse in December. This win fed some hope into the northwestern French club as they picked up 3 remarkable wins in their next 6 games.

This incredible fight kept Caen, a team with only 4 league wins beforehand, in with a chance to stay up. Fighting against Dijon, Amiens and Monaco with 2 games to go. In their final 2 games Caen were the only team unable to pick up a point with Dijon beating Toulouse, Amiens beating 20th placed Guingamp and Monaco picking up a victory against Amiens whilst Fabien Mercadal’s side suffered back to back losses to Lyon and Bordeaux.

This immense showing of belief and fight wasn’t enough for Caens as they were relegated on the final day of the season.