Toulouse Erupts at the Stadium de Toulouse, Routing Metz 4-0 in a Statement Win
Toulouse entered Sunday’s match at the Stadium de Toulouse seeking not only points, but purpose—a sense of upward momentum to match their ambitions. By the final whistle, any lingering doubts had been swept away in a four-goal deluge, with Metz left to contemplate the steep cost of early errors and a costly red card. Frank Magri’s opener, Aron Dønnum’s cool penalty, and late strikes from Yann Gboho and Charlie Cresswell underscored a day on which nearly everything clicked for the home side.
The script almost wrote itself within moments of kickoff. With less than two minutes on the clock, Magri pounced on a loose ball at the edge of the box, rifling a low shot past Alexandre Oukidja and into the bottom corner. It was the kind of sharp, instinctive finish that set the tone for the afternoon and momentarily stunned the visitors, who have known little but adversity this autumn.
Barely had Metz composed themselves before fortune once again turned against them. In the eighth minute, Dønnum sliced through the defense, drawing a clumsy challenge from Metz’s Sadibou Sané. The referee pointed to the spot without hesitation, and Dønnum himself sent Oukidja the wrong way with a calm, assured strike. Two goals down inside ten minutes, Metz’s fragile confidence—already battered by a winless campaign—began to unravel.
For Toulouse, the first half was defined by energy and pressing, exemplified by Magri and Gboho who harried the Metz backline at every turn. The visitors, for their part, struggled to generate anything resembling a response. As the interval approached, a sliding tackle from Sané brought his afternoon to a premature end. The red card, his second caution in just 45 minutes, reduced Metz to ten for the entire second period—an insurmountable disadvantage for a side already in freefall.
Metz’s resolve, to their credit, held for a time. Playing with a compact, defensive shape, they limited Toulouse to half chances as the second-half clock ticked onward. But fatigue and desperation have a way of revealing cracks. In the 79th minute, Gboho found space at the top of the box and unleashed a curling effort that kissed the post on its way in. It was no less than his recent form deserved—a third league goal in as many matches for a player growing in confidence.
With the outcome beyond doubt, Toulouse’s dominance was underlined in the 84th. This time, it was Charlie Cresswell who rose highest at a late corner, glancing a header home to the delight of the home support. The English defender’s first goal for the club was met with jubilant celebrations, a capstone on a performance that felt as much like catharsis as conquest.
There has been little joy for Metz of late, and this latest setback threatens to deepen the malaise. Rooted firmly in 18th place with just two points from seven matches and no victories, they have now conceded 16 times—an unwanted record matched only by their inability to turn resilience into results. Their recent outings have offered little respite: a 0-3 capitulation at home to Marseille, a scoreless stalemate against Le Havre, and defensive collapses away at Monaco and Paris FC. A solitary draw at Angers feels increasingly distant.
For Toulouse, today’s display was a timely reminder of their potential. Their own season has been marked by inconsistency, but the recent trend is encouraging: back-to-back league wins, including a dramatic 2-1 comeback at Lyon spurred by Emersonn's late heroics, and a four-match unbeaten run at home. With 10 points from 7 matches, they now sit 10th—a result that keeps them in striking distance of the European places. The memory of early season stumbles, including defeat at Auxerre and a wild 3-6 shootout loss to Paris Saint Germain, recedes with each commanding performance such as this.
The head-to-head history between Toulouse and Metz has often tilted narrowly, but rarely with such emphatic separation. Today’s four-goal margin stands as a marker of progress for the hosts, and a worrying sign for Metz, whose campaign threatens to spiral should they fail to staunch the bleeding.
Looking ahead, Toulouse will believe they are finally building momentum to match their ambition. With the attack firing—Magri, Gboho, Dønnum all on the scoresheet—and a defense anchored by Cresswell’s growing assurance, there is cautious optimism that the club can establish itself in the Ligue 1 upper half. Metz, meanwhile, must search for answers fast. The specter of relegation grows with each passing week, and solutions on both ends of the pitch are urgently required.
For one autumn afternoon, at least, Toulouse soared—leaving a beleaguered Metz grounded and the home crowd dreaming, once more, of better days ahead.