Grenoble vs. Nancy

The home side began the match in lively fashion, roared on by 11,000 loyal fans who sensed tonight was their night. It looked that way, too, throughout an exciting first 45 minutes that was dominated by Grenoble.

But despite having the lion's share of the possession, Grenoble couldn't take their chances, the most glaring miss being that of Bostjan Cesar after Nancy's keeper, Damien Gregorini, had fumbled a corner.

Nancy, with only one win from their last seven matches, came out after the break looking to assert themselves more, but on 53 minutes Grenoble's Serbian striker Danijel Ljuboja profited from good work by Nassim Akrour to steer the ball into the back of the Nancy net for his fourth goal of the season.

Six minutes later Ljuboja nearly made it 2-0, only a fine stop from Gregorini denying the 31-year-old striker. With Nancy seeking an equaliser, and Grenoble searching for their second, the game produced some thrilling end-to-end action, but it took a moment of heartbreak on 73 minutes to cough up the all-important goal.

Grenoble defender David Jemmali made a dreadful hash of dealing with a cross from Nancy's Pascal Berenguer, and Ronan Le Crom in the Grenoble goal could only look on in horror as the ball looped over his head and into the back of the net to make it 1-1.

With two minutes remaining it looked as if Grenoble had at least done enough to earn their first point of the season but then Cesar was adjudged to have brought down Issair Dia in the box. Monsieur Ledentu pointed to the spot and Youssouf Hadji drilled the ball past Le Crom for the goal that won the game for Nancy and broke the hearts of Grenoble.