There was certainly a stroke of fortune about Sofiane Boufal’s first goal back in French football. But, as the old saying goes, you make your own luck.
Jinking inside on to his left foot, the mercurial Moroccan fired a deflected shot into Rennes’ net as Angers came from behind to stun a side who, going into matchday eight, were sitting second in the embryonic Ligue 1 table.
The test, of course, is whether Boufal can produce moments of match-winning magic on a regular basis.
His ability has never been in question but his consistency, or lack of, has.
In four years at Southampton, a player who arrived for a club record £16 million amid comparisons to a fresh-faced Eden Hazard scored just three times in 70 Premier League games.
That one of those was a goal of the season winner, a weaving wondergoal against West Brom that conjures up images of Ryan Giggs’ chest hair, summed up Boufal’s time on the South Coast.
Few players are capable of flitting from the exceptional to the anonymous quite so quickly.
The fact Southampton were happy to terminate his contract and let one of their most expensive ever players leave for free spoke volumes.
So no-one at Angers will be getting carried away just yet.
However, some Angers fans certainly seemed happy to see Boufal back.
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