French Ligue 1

Evian Thonon Gaillard 0-2 Brest

Struggling Evian had goalkeeper Bertrand Laquait sent off early on as they slipped to a third straight Ligue 1 defeat at home to Brest tonight.

The hosts were reduced to 10 men after just 14 minutes when Laquait conceded a penalty for bringing down Eden Ben Basat when through on goal.

Ben Basat took the spot-kick himself, beating replacement keeper Stephan Andersen.

Evian did well to stay in the game despite being a man down, and indeed only some smart saves from Alexis Thebaux kept them from levelling, but Bruno Grougi added a second at the death to seal Brest's win.

Defeat saw Evian stay one place and three points above the drop zone.

The relegation-threatened hosts started well and Kevin Berigaud got his head to Olivier Sorlin's cross, only for keeper Thebaux to produce a fine save to his right to deny him.

And it soon went wrong for Evian.

Ben Basat broke into the area and was brought down by Laquait, who saw red.

The hosts took off striker Berigaud so they could bring on Andersen, but the new keeper's first task was to pick Ben Basat's penalty out of the goal.

The 10 men responded well, though, Eric Tie Bi forcing a decent save from Thebaux from the edge of the area, and the keeper was called into action again just after the half-hour mark, diving to keep out a curling Cedric Barbosa free-kick.

Evian continued to create the better chances after the break and should have equalised in the 69th minute, but Barbosa, through on goal, could not find a way past Thebaux.

The visiting keeper then turned away a Youssef Adnane effort as they hosts wasted another promising opening.

And the misses proved costly with Grougi doubling Brest's lead in the last minute, beating two defenders and firing home to finish a counter-attack in style.