Magenta beats Hienghène and keep their chances to win Mobil Super Ligue

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The 16th round of Mobil Super Ligue, the first tier of football in New Caledonia had very important clashes and the current most important derby of the country: Hienghène against Magenta. The task of Magenta was not easy for this round: they needed to win the match against the current champions of OFC Champions League to keep their chance to retain the Mobil Super Ligue title. Hienghéne had won all previous three matches they played against Magenta – including the continental club final – and the Nouméa club had their most important player, Richard Sele, out due injury.

Hienghène – with only three matches remaining in the season – did not record any defeat in the national league: the task for Magenta was really not easy, a draw would mean the Mobil Super Ligue title would go for the team based in the north of New Caledonia. Magenta challenge turned into a much more harder quest when Brice Dahité scored in the first minute of the match with a long-range shot thanks to huge mistake of Magenta stopper Steve Ixoéé.

Hienghène kept attacking lead by their captain Bertrand Kaï and had possibilities to increase their lead. But at the 22th minute of play, after a defensive mistake by Hienghène defense, Kevin Nemia was allowed to finish with a powerful shot – the shot was deflected and gave no chance to the goalkeeper Rocky Nyikeine. The equalizer gave a morale boost to the home side that start to pursue a second goal.

The first half ended with not many chances to score for both teams. The 1-1 score was enough for Hienghène to secure their third trophy of the 2019 season. The team coached by Alain Moizan knew they needed to find a second goal and win the match to keep their title chances alive.

The second half started with a lively Magenta looking for the so needed goal. Hienghène was reduced to 10-men after the defensive midfielder Cédric Sansot received his second yellow card – Magenta turned so to dominate the match and Hienghène focused to keep the match as a draw, the result they needed to take the title home.

Roy Kayara had an impressive match; his experience helped his side to hold the result. An impressive Rocky Nyikeine made some magnificent stops, especially in a free-kick taken by Shene Wélépane. Unfortunately, their efforts were not enough to hold Magenta pressure: at the 92th minute of match, a perfect counter-attack by the some side found Kevin Nemia unmarked inside area in front of the goalkeeper, the New Caledonian international made no mistake and found the nets for his second time in the match for the joy of the local fans.

To make the things even harder for Hienghène, their star goalkeeper Rocky Nyikeine was forced to save a wrong back pass by Erwan Ausu with his hands – the defender did not realised Nyikeine was out of his goal and his pass was too heavy for the keeper to bounce back and he needed to use his hands. For this reason Nyikeine was shown a red card and is not going to feature in the next Hienghène Sport match.

In other matches of the round, ES Wacaele could collect a very important win against their direct rivals against relegation Trio Kedeigne. Horizon Patho and SC Ne Drehu had shown why they are so close in the standings and draw at Stade de La Roche in a 2-2 result.

AS Mont-Dore kept their dissapointing campaign in the season with a 2-0 defeat against Tiga Sport at Stade Numa Daly in the first match of the Sunday. A fantastic goal by Ludwig Zeoula was not enough for AS Lössi to secure all the points of the match against AS Wetr, that could fight back with and find an equalizer in a late penalty scored by Christopher Wacalie.

Hienghène Sport kept their lead despite losing their first match in the league. They still need just one win in the two remaining matches to secure the Mobil Super Ligue title. Magenta kept in the run; they need to win both of their remaining matches and hope that Hienghène does not win in the last two remaining rounds.

The points difference in the table from AS Wetr – 3rd placed team – remains only of two to AS Lössi that stands at the 8th place. The match AS Mont-Dore vs. Trio Kedeigne is still in dispute to and the referees commission is expected to have a decision soon.

The very important win for ES Wacaele made them to swtich positions in the table with Trio Kedeigne – now the Lifou based team is at the bottom of the table and if it remains they will be directly relegated to New Caledonian Ligue 2 while ES Wacaele will have the chance to play a playoff of relegation-promotion to decide their fate in the New Caledonian football system.