JS Bordj Ménaïel’s Drought Ends with Clinical Triumph over HB Chelghoum Laïd, Breathing Life into Ligue 2 Survival Race
If football seasons are measured in narrow margins and turning points, the 2-0 victory by JS Bordj Ménaïel over HB Chelghoum Laïd on Tuesday was a watershed, not just for the victors but for a Ligue 2 campaign tight on points, short on solace, and heavy with consequence for both clubs swirling near the bottom of the table.
Entering the day, neither side could claim momentum. HB Chelghoum Laïd sat in 15th with a solitary win against four defeats, their only glimmer a 3-2 home result over Nrb Beni Oulbene now faded by successive beatings, including a humbling 1-3 defeat at NC Magra and three-goal losses at Teleghma and JS Jijel. The hosts had not kept a clean sheet all campaign, leaking goals in a fashion that placed their early ambitions in cold storage.
JS Bordj Ménaïel’s own travails were of a different hue but no less paralyzing. Five matches, no wins, three draws and two defeats, the latest a goalless stalemate against MSP Batna that offered little uplift. But with both teams marooned on three points and only separated by the thinnest of tiebreakers, the afternoon felt less like an ordinary league fixture and more an early test of nerve, resolve, and a will to break free of gravity’s pull.
The early exchanges provided little to separate two squads heavy on caution. HB Chelghoum Laïd, anxious to stanch the defensive bleeding, started brightly but soon ran aground on the visitors’ compact midfield. JS Bordj Ménaïel, winless and unfancied, offered measured advances—patient, almost studious in their wait for cracks to appear.
The breakthrough, when it came, owed as much to desperation as design. Just past the half-hour mark, a probing move down the left forced a defensive scramble in the Chelghoum Laïd penalty area. With bodies converging, the ball fell invitingly to Bordj Ménaïel’s forward line, and with a clinical finish—low, hard, and beyond the reach of the sprawling goalkeeper—the deadlock was broken. The goal, cheered with near disbelief by the traveling support, injected urgency into the contest but left HB Chelghoum Laïd reeling, forced to chase yet another deficit.
Buoyed by their advantage, JS Bordj Ménaïel tightened their grip after the interval. The hosts, desperate for a lifeline, pushed forward in numbers, but it was the visitors who nearly doubled their lead minutes into the second half, only to be denied by a full-stretch save. Chelghoum Laïd threatened sporadically, most notably with a skimming drive that fizzed wide, but the final pass—so often their undoing this season—remained elusive.
As the minutes ticked down, it became clear the home side’s frustrations were mounting. Ill-timed tackles crept in, the game’s cautions tally rising alongside the volume from the touchlines. Yet JS Bordj Ménaïel’s composure never wavered. Their reward arrived in the form of a second goal: a sweeping counterattack in the dying minutes, the finish once again decisive, sealing a 2-0 result that was as much about discipline as it was about opportunism.
For HB Chelghoum Laïd, this latest setback crystallizes the pattern of their campaign thus far—a solitary win lost amidst an avalanche of defeats, and a defense unable to shield their fragile attack. For all their flashes of promise, the reality is stark: fifteen goals conceded across just five matches, the league table now telling a story of a team in search of a foothold as autumn deepens.
JS Bordj Ménaïel, meanwhile, leave with both a first win and a statement of intent. Their position—now just above Chelghoum Laïd—remains precarious, but the victory uncorks the pressure that had built over a winless opening stretch and provides tangible proof that belief, married to organization, still counts for something in football’s middle reaches.
The wider implications are clear. Both teams remain mired at the wrong end of the Ligue 2 standings, the line between safety and oblivion as thin as ever. For HB Chelghoum Laïd, alarm bells will sound: with a defense as porous as theirs, every fixture becomes a test of mettle as much as skill. JS Bordj Ménaïel, at last with three points to show for their enterprise, know that momentum is a fragile thing in a relegation fight, but today’s win, earned on hostile ground, may yet serve as a springboard as the season’s battle lines sharpen.
The season is young, but for two embattled squads, the urgency is not. Today, JS Bordj Ménaïel found grit to match their need, and in Ligue 2’s restless shuffle, that is sometimes all that matters.