Ajaccio triumph in crazy French promotion play-off

Ajaccio (France) (AFP) – After one postponement, four red cards, a dramatic late equaliser and a penalty shoot-out, Corsican club Ajaccio are closing in on promotion back to France’s top flight.

The Ligue 2 promotion play-off between Ajaccio and Le Havre was postponed in surreal scenes on Friday after fans of the Corsican club attacked the visitors’ team bus.

Le Havre returned home to northern France and then came back for Sunday’s game, only to see their hopes of promotion go up in smoke.

The match finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, but Ajaccio midfielder Mathieu Coutadeur was then sent off in extra time and on-loan Lyon striker Jean-Philippe Mateta scored a penalty — his second goal of the night — to put Le Havre 2-1 up.

That appeared to be that, but Mateta was then sent off for the provocative manner in which he celebrated his goal.

Two more players, were also dismissed, leaving the sides to complete extra time with nine against nine.

Ajaccio’s Mady Camara made it 2-2 in the fifth minute of added time in extra time, forcing penalties, and the Corsicans duly won the shoot-out 5-3.

They will now have to recover quickly from a draining weekend as they are not in Ligue 1 yet — to return to the top flight for the first time since 2014 they will need to beat Toulouse over two legs.

Ajaccio will be at home in the first leg before the return next Sunday away in Toulouse, who came third-bottom in Ligue 1.