BERMUDA: Dale Eve, Roger Lee, Kilian Elkinson (Jahnai Raynor), Tre Ming, Drewonde Bascome (Marco Warren), Zeiko Lewis, Justin Donawa, Dante Leverock, Keishen Bean (Jonte Smith), Reggie Thompson-Lambe. FRENCH GUIANA: Gregory Lescot, Rhudy Evens (Alex Eric), Josué Albert (Marvin Torvic), Kevin Rimane (Stephane Privat), Anthony Soubervie, Gabriel Pigree, Roy Contout, Loic Baal, Jean David Legrand, Ludovic Baal, Donovan Leon
Bermuda came out on top of their second match of the 2016 Caribbean Football Union's Caribbean Cup at the National Sports Center defeating French Guiana 2 – 1.
With the stadium not even half full, mainly due to the poor job in promoting the game by the Bermuda Football Association, the match got off to slow start.
French Guiana were forced to make a substitution in the 14th minute when Josué Albert injured his knee landing awkwardly and was replaced by Marvin Torvic, the first talking point of the game came in the minutes later when Loic Baal watched his shot beat Dale Eve in goal for Bermuda, the ball hit the crossbar and to many in the stands it appeared that the ball bounced over the line, however due to were the shot was taken from it was almost impossible for the referee assistant to see if the ball infact crossed the line and the referee waved play on.
Both teams fell back into that safe mode and was just waiting for a mistake and it came in the 35th minute, a defense splitting pass opened up the Bermuda back four and Rhudy Evens was on hand to slip the ball pass an advancing Eve.
The lead only lasted seven minutes as Zeiko Lewis burst through the French Guiana defense and unleashed a left footed shot that Gregory Lescot in goal for French Guiana could only block and Tre Ming followed up with a shot into the net.
Stephane Privat replaced Kevin Rimane at the break and within minutes of the restart he forced Eve to make a save. In the 55th minute French Guiana came close to making it 2 – 1, but Gabriel Pigree’s redirected header was saved by Eve with one hand diving back into the goal, Evens hit the rebound but Eve did well to hold onto the shot.
Bermuda introduced Jonte Smith into the attack in the 57th minute replacing captain Keishen Bean, he came close to scoring with his first touch, Smith was put through but he tried to lob the ball over an advancing Lescot, but only managed to find the goalkeepers safe hands.
Evens made way for Alex Eric in the 67th minute as French Guiana made their final substitution, three minutes later a searching ball to the far post from Reginald Thompson-Lambe saw Smith throw himself at the ball only for his header to go just wide.
Drewonde Bascome made way for Marco Warren in the 72nd minute, and four minutes later Bermuda took the lead. A long ball forward was picked up by Lewis who shrugged off his marker and then rounded the goalkeeper and with two defenders blocking his path to goal he squared it to Thompson-Lambe who calmly put the ball away from close range.
Bermuda managed to hold off the late challenge from French Guiana to come away with the win and now await the match between French Guyana and Cuba on Tuesday to see which two teams advance.