Montpellier win on the road

Montpellier breathed new life into their stuttering start to the season with a morale-boosting 2-0 win on the road at Nancy.

Montpellier breathed new life into their stuttering start to the season with a morale-boosting 2-0 win on the road at Nancy. The reigning Ligue 1 champions had won just one of their opening six matches prior to this evening, but second-half goals from Younes Belhanda and Souleymane Camara were enough to lift Montpellier into the relative respectability of mid-table. Defeat for Nancy is their sixth on the bounce in all competitions, and leaves them mired inside the relegation zone. Montpellier boss Rene Girard demanded a performance from his players in this match to boost confidence ahead of their midweek Champions League tie at Schalke, but it was Nancy who started best at Stade Marcel Picot with a string of early chances. Loosemy Karaboue had the hosts' first opening in the third minute, going through one-on-one with Geoffrey Jourdren who made a good save. Benjamin Moukandjo then tried his luck with an effort that sailed just wide of the target, while in the 16th minute Karaboue was again presented with a decent chance that he dragged wide of Jourdren's post. Montpellier's only real moment of threat in the first period arrived shortly before the break when Garry Bocaly crossed for Camara but the striker missed the target. Jourdren blocked Karaboue's long-range effort in the first minute of the second period as Nancy again looked menacing, but when the breakthrough came later in the half it was the visitors left celebrating. Karim Ait Fana started the move in the 65th minute, advancing down the left and finding Belhanda, who took aim from 20 yards with a superb shot into the left corner. Nancy thought they had squeezed home an equaliser in the 77th minute when Andre Luiz beat the goalkeeper with a header from a Romain Grange free-kick but Marco Estrada somehow cleared the ball off the line. And the game was up for the hosts in the final minute when Remy Cabella swung the ball in from the right and Camara controlled on his chest before rifling home a powerful finish from the edge of the box.