Julien Stephan, the Strasbourg trainer: “It’s an excellent result considering the circumstances. We had a very good start to the match, but the Nantes goal hurt us. Then came an illogical decision for me with the expulsion of Ludovic Ajorque. It could have penalized us a lot, but it ultimately galvanized us. All the credit goes to the players, who had an excellent second half. We equalized logically and the face displayed by the team is very interesting. I am even convinced that eleven, we could have won this match “.
The attacker Ludovic Ajorque, sent off in the 51st minute: “For me, there is no red card. Habib Diallo gives me a great ball, I control and when I want to hit, I do not see it (Editor’s note the Nantes defender Fabio). When I finish my gesture, I believe that it’s my knee that taps his calf. The referee turns me red quickly, I was a little surprised. I wanted him to go see the VAR, but he didn’t want to, he was comforted in his decision. I was disgusted to leave them at ten, but when I saw them put in all that effort and come back to score, I was really proud. “
Midfielder Adrien thomasson : “It was a committed match. We started off very well, then we had a hole in the air after the first Nantes goal, which hurt our head. We managed to score just before half-time, that was for us. He restored confidence. At the start of the second half, things didn’t go smoothly for us, between the Nantes goal and the red card which was ultra severe. We found the necessary resources to equalize. Even if it is very good , we have some regrets, because eleven against eleven, we could undoubtedly have won “.
For his return to La Beaujoire, this time with the public in the stands, Adrien thomasson played a nasty trick on his former teammates. He was first the author of a subtle deviation on Habib Diallo’s equalizer just before half-time. Then the attacking midfielder scored Racing’s second goal, once is not customary, with a header on a cross from the left of Frédéric Guilbert (even if for example he already scored with a header in Metz last season) . Very active and never stingy with efforts, Adrien Thomasson has already scored four goals this season. After entering the history books by marking the 3,000th goal in the history of Racing in D1 against Lorient, he became decisive again, after missing two games, following his expulsion against Lille (he had only entered at the end of the match in Rennes for his return from suspension).
1.
Ludovic Ajorque has been expelled for the first time of his professional career this Sunday in Nantes. Racing hopes to cancel this expulsion, arguing that the gesture of the Reunion striker was not intentional. The Strasbourg center-forward, in a scoring position, struck in the leg of the Canaries defender Fabio, who was quicker than him on this action to take the ball away from him. The referee Clément Turpin considered that this gesture was dangerous and uncontrolled. Instead of scoring, Ludovic Ajorque had to prematurely go to the locker room.
37.
It is the number of shots during this very lively Nantes-Racing (20 for Nantes, 17 for Strasbourg). Both teams have framed six of their shots and scored twice.
- THE SUMMARY OF THE MATCH IN AUDIO: