Centre-back Samuel Kotto played the full 90 minutes of Stade de Reims’ first defeat of the Ligue 2 season, 3-2 at Grenoble on Friday 6 November, before joining up with the Cameroon national team to face Namibia.
Stade de Reims suffered their first defeat of the Ligue 2 season. On Friday 6 November, on matchday 12, the Rémois went down 3-2 at Grenoble, reports L’Ardennais. Samuel Kotto, deployed in central defence, nevertheless stayed on the pitch until the final whistle.
The Cameroonian was particularly available, as the stats compiled by Actucameroun show. The reading of the match remains mixed, however: L’Ardennais puts the defender in its “flop” of the game.
Plenty of volume, a harsher verdict
Actucameroun highlights a busy performance in the numbers: 132 balls touched, 106 passes completed out of 119 attempted, 2 interceptions and 5 recoveries. In duels, Kotto won 3 of his 5 ground contests and 5 of his 8 aerial duels.
Those figures paint the picture of a defender heavily involved in build-up play and clearances. They feed the Cameroonian outlet’s angle, which calls Kotto “solid” despite the collective defeat.
L’Ardennais takes a harsher view. The paper places Kotto in its “flop” of the match, pointing to his failure to intervene at the near post on Grenoble’s second goal. A detail that weighs heavily in a 3-2 Reims defeat, with Grenoble scoring three.
On that reading, the 132 balls touched do not erase a defensive lapse on one of the three goals conceded.
Fofana in the spotlight
Going forward, Yaya Fofana, the Reims midfielder and Ivory Coast international, scored a brace in the 45th and 67th minutes, according to L’Ardennais and But Football Club. His tally now stands at 10 goals this season in Ligue 2. Those two strikes were Reims’ only goals in the 3-2 defeat.
On to AFCON 2027
Kotto has no time to rest: he has been called up by Cameroon for the AFCON 2027 qualifiers against Namibia. The first match, Cameroon–Namibia, is set for Thursday 12 November at 20:00, and the second, Namibia–Cameroon, for Monday 16 November at 14:00, according to the schedule published by L’Ardennais.
Meanwhile, Stade de Reims enter the Coupe de France on Saturday 14 November at 14:00 at Tourcoing, a Régional 1 club, without their internationals. The Rémois will therefore have to manage without Kotto and Fofana for that fixture.