Great story alert! CS Saint-Laurent defeated the Halifax Wanderers in a shootout after a 2-2 draw on Thursday evening. This is the first time in history that a semi-pro Quebec club has defeated a professional opponent in the preliminary phase of the Canadian Championship.
CS Saint-Laurent, which plays in Ligue1 Quebec, thus reaches the quarter-finals of the national tournament. He will face none other than Toronto FC.
In an interview with OneSoccer after the match, head coach Nick Razzaghi showed a big smile. In the background, his players could be heard celebrating in the locker room.
“I think you can tell by the noise next door… It’s very special to each of us. We’ve had our eyes on this match for about two years. To come here and win on our first opportunity… We told ourselves it didn’t matter how we got there; we wanted the win, no matter how we had to play to get there. We are all very proud to have achieved this. »
Mamadou Kane, who scored during the match and gave his team the victory on penalties, was one of the great architects of this historic victory. Still at OneSoccer, he lacked words to express his emotions. “We are happy, we are happy!” We did it, we did it,” he repeated twice rather than once.
Read “The “big occasion” of CS Saint-Laurent”
The Wanderers, playing in front of their Nova Scotia fans, were the first to score; Daniel Nimick made it 1-0 on a penalty in the 29the minute.
CS Saint-Laurent only took three minutes to respond. Mamadou Kane took advantage of a penalty in his turn, after goalkeeper Yann Fillion tripped him in the penalty area. Kane equalized and brought everyone back to square one.
At halftime, CS Saint-Laurent was in the game. Both teams had 2 shots on target.
It’s on the way back, at 65e minute, that the Quebec club took the lead for the first time in the match. Loïc Adrien Kwemi scored with a shot from outside the penalty area; the ball hit an opponent’s leg before flying over everyone and ending up in the goal. The Halifax goalkeeper was beside himself.
The locals did not give up. At 83e minute, Ryan Telfer made it 2-2 on a corner kick.
It all came down to a shootout. Loïc Adrien Kwemi, Safwane Mlah, Oussema Boughanmi and Abdoul Aziz Sakande all scored for CS Saint-Laurent before Christian Volesky missed for the Wanderers side. Mamadou Kane, again, then took charge of giving victory to the Quebecers.
In interview with The Press, Wednesday, the technical director of CS Saint-Laurent, Rocco Placentino, praised the preparation of the Quebec team. “ [Le personnel d’entraîneurs a] does his best to put the players in a position to do well, he said. And yes, I think the kids are ready to play this game. »
We have to believe that he was right.
The first match of the home-and-away quarter-final duel against Toronto FC will take place on May 8 at the Center Claude-Robillard in Montreal.