Osman BukariGetty

Ghana’s Bukari bags assist as Simon’s Nantes defeat Lorient

Osman Bukari provided the assist that saw Nantes defeat Lorient 1-0 away from home in Sunday’s Ligue 1 outing.

The Ghana international had replaced Moses Simon in the 83rd minute and two minutes later, his first involvement saw him set up Wylan Cyprien for the winning strike.

Having failed to win any of their last five league games, the Yellow House travelled to Stade du Moustoir – with the ambition of ending their poor run.

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From the blast of referee Ruddy Buquet’s whistle, Nantes showed their intent to win but it was the hosts who dominated ball possession with Nigeria’s Terem Moffi causing some moments of panic.

Fifteen minutes into the game, Moffi wasted the chance to end his side’s scoring drought, as he flashed a shot from the edge of the box just wide of the left-hand post.

Some clever hold-up play from Enzo Le Fee had presented the Super Eagle with a great chance, but his strike was remarkably wayward.

Before the half-time break, goalkeeper Alban Lafont was called into action as Moffi’s curled strike looked destined for the bottom left-hand corner, but a strong palm from the stopper denied the home side.

Continuing from where they left things in the first half, Lorient started the second period on the front foot and attacked Nantes’ backline in numbers.

They went close to taking the lead but Dango Ouattara could not take advantage of a promising run from Igor Carioca.

However, it was the visiting side who had the last laugh as they scored the winner seven minutes from full-time through Cyprien, to the anguish of Christophe Pelissier’s team.

Cameroon's Jean-Charles Castelletto and Congo's Samuel Moutoussamy were in action from start to finish for Nantes, whereas Malian forward Kalifa Coulibaly was subbed off for man-of-the-match Cyprien in the 64th minute.

For Terem, he was substituted for Adrian Grbic with eight minutes left on the clock after an unproductive evening. Burkina Faso star Dango Ouattara played all 90 minutes.

With this result, Nantes climbed to 13th in the log having accrued 22 points from 17 matches. For Lorient, they stay in the 16th spot with 15 points from the same number of matches.

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