St Etienne 1 - 0 AS Nancy Lorraine

St Etienne 1-0 AS Nancy Lorraine

Updated: August 19, 2006, 5:41 PM ET

Araujo Ilan's goal was enough to separate the sides and prevent the visitors from Lorraine from racking up a third consecutive win.

A miserable day was complete for Pablo Correa's side with the sending-off of Emmanuel Duchemin.

Nancy started well and after three minutes Moncef Zerka intercepted a backpass and shot at goal but St Etienne goalkeeper Jeremie Janot managed to make the save.

St Etienne thought they had taken the lead after 11 minutes when Ilan outpaced the Nancy defence and netted but the Brazilian's strike was ruled out for offside.

Sebastien Puygrenier then headed narrowly wide for Nancy, who were still well in the game.

St Etienne went close through Geoffrey Dernis before Zerka spurned another chance to put Nancy in the lead.

The early stages of the second half were quiet but when St Etienne came out of their shells they scored the goal that would eventually decide the match.

It was all down to the persistence of Ilan who dribbled into the penalty area and fired low into the Nancy goal after some good approach work from Dernis and Frederic Piquionne.

Duchemin got his marching orders after 70 minutes for his second yellow card, both for fouls on Julien Sable.

Ilan missed a chance for a second goal after 87 minutes when he was wayward with his finishing but Nancy were not able to get the equaliser they needed to preserve their unbeaten record.