“I have no words“: at the end of the match, the Nantes player Pedro Chirivella is on a small cloud. In a Beaujoire on fire, the Canaries managed to qualify this Wednesday evening for the final of the Coupe de France, beating Monaco at the end of the suspense (2-2, 4-2 tabs).”It’s deserved, I’m very happy for all the players, for the staff, for all the public who have been supporting us for a long time“, underlines the midfielder.
Going to the final, going to the Stade de France, it’s fantastic! Before being good players, we are good guys, so it’s deserved. – Pedro Chirivella
His teammate Randal Kolo Muani also displays a huge smile: “It’s madness, there’s nothing to say. Seeing all the happy supporters, the coach, the friends, it’s nice! I still can’t imagine! I celebrated, photos with the supporters, it made me happy.” For the young striker from Bondy, this semi-final is “the most beautiful game of my life, the best moment of my career“. Even if the meeting was complicated, “we were able to equalize, lead… it gave an emotional lift. But we remained solid, welded”.
The Monegasques indeed opened the scoring, before being caught by the Canaries. It was the Nantes who took the lead in the second half but their joy was short-lived, Monaco equalized a few moments later. It was therefore necessary to wait for the penalty shootout to decide between the two teams. “We did something big with a whole stadium behind ussays Denis Appiah. What we did is very beautiful! We gave everything It was difficult, it’s exceptional!“
“That’s wonderful”
When we remember that last year, the Canaries had to go to the play-offs to stay in the elite, Pedro Chirivella savors: “Last year, it was not easy, we experienced very complicated things, since the start of the season we said to ourselves that we had to work hard and that’s it, it’s fantastic!“Same speech on the side of Antoine Kombouaré, the coach of the yellow house:”Today, finding themselves seventh in Ligue 1 and making a Coupe de France final, it’s a sick thing what we are going through!“
And the players, like their coach, salute the atmosphere and the support of the public throughout the match. The Canaries supporters even invaded the field at the final whistle. “I had only seen it on TV, in videos, but in real life, it’s the first time! It’s nice to see them like that, it’s been 20 years since they’ve experienced that, it was important to us!“, confides Randal Kolo Muani.
Antoine Kombouaré says it himself, he did not expect this invasion of the field: “I said to myself ‘the supporters are sick because we haven’t won anything’ but that also meant a lot of things: the expectation, the lack, and above all the fear that the supporters had, the emotional lift. People were very scared, they suffered with us and then the liberation… I had never seen that. We hope to see the same thing at the Stade de France.“
It’s more than pride, it’s unimaginable. When we do these results, I think of my elders Coco Suaudeau, Raynald Denoueix… – Antoine Kombouaré
“We haven’t won anything yettempers the right side of FC Nantes, Denis Appiah. We must take advantage and win this final. We have no limits! As the coach says: ‘The higher you aim, the more likely you are to succeed’.“Ludovic Blas also has his eyes on the Stade de France:”We’re in the final it’s good but I know what it’s like to go to the final and lose it [finale perdue avec Guingamp]I don’t want to go through that again.“
I owe everything to the club so taking him to the Stade de France is something. – Antoine Kombouaré
The president of FC Nantes also spoke this Wednesday evening. Waldemar Kita said he was proud of his team: “We are happy when we win matches, when we have the opportunity to go to the Stade de France. Now what is important is to thank the players who were criticized last year.“Does he see this victory as revenge against the critics?I’m not in that state of mind, I don’t see revenge, I see hard work paying off. This is my first final but we must not let go.“
See you on May 8 at the Stade de France for this Coupe de France final between FC Nantes and OGC Nice.