At the end of a crazy match, Brest ended up winning (4-3) against Metz to lock its second place in the standings, Sunday, for the 28th day of Ligue 1.
With 53 points on the clock, Brest relegated Monaco, 4th, which hosts Rennes at the end of the afternoon, four lengths and is therefore sure to remain one more week, at least, the runner-up to Paris SG.
Metz remains 17th and penultimate with 23 points, 5 units behind remaining six days from the end.
Morale affected after the disaster at home (2-5) against Monaco last week, the Lorraines showed some signs of life but too sporadic to grab a point which would have been very precious.
From the 6th minute, Ismaël Traoré, benefiting from Kenny Lala’s largesse in marking, opened the scoring by taking a corner near the penalty spot (0-1).
A little later in the first act, Georges Mikautadze almost gave the advantage back to the Messins during a solitary raid where he erased Brendan Chardonnet, Lilian Brassier and Marco Bizot before seeing Brassier, well back on his line, push back his attempt (18th).
Game postponed for the Georgian who scored a double in six minutes, in the second half (4-2, 74th and 4-3, 80th), while Brest had completely fallen asleep on its laurels.
Because for more than an hour, it was a real demonstration of football that the Bretons delivered, both in recovering the ball and in its use.
Without Alexandre Oukidja, singled out after Monaco for having conceded a goal on a backheel attempted in his area, but decisive in the first period, against Steve Mounié (27th, 30th, 45th), Romain Del Castillo (29th) or Lala ( 45 1), the score could have been much heavier.
With his game full of passes, movements, reversals of play and compensations, which made more than one opponent dizzy this season, Brest seemed in for a walk in the park.
At half-time, the Ty Zef were already leading 3-1, posting 17 shots, including eight on target, unheard of for them, at the break of an elite match in the 21st century, according to Opta.
Just six minutes after being behind, Chardonnet came to recover a missed header from a Metz defender to reset the counters to zero (1-1, 12th).
At the half-hour mark, a long incoming cross, poorly judged by the Metz defense, allowed Del Castillo, at the far post, to deliver with a measured left-footed flat for Kamory Doumbia who propelled the ball into the top of the net of the opposing cages (1-1, 30th).
And in the 38th minute of play, after a new sequence of play as endless as it was elegant, Martin Satriano’s back cross found the head of Mounié who wrong-footed Oukidja (3-1, 38th).
The ovation from the Francis Le-Blé stadium at the break was well deserved given the spectacle offered and Eric Roy’s men hit the nail on the head on the hour mark, with a uncrossed header from Satriano from a corner (4-1 , 60th).
But the guilty relaxation of the defense which was the best in Ligue 1 in 2024, with 5 goals conceded before this meeting, is a good reminder that the European dream of Brest is hanging by a thread.
With a trip to Lyon, the reception of Monaco and a derby in Rennes, before a more affordable end of the season (Nantes, Reims, Toulouse), breaking now would be very cruel after such a successful season.