Weighed down by a failed start, with two goals quickly conceded and a red card, the Canaries were heavily beaten (3-0) and will not go to the round of 16.
From dream to nightmare, there is only one step and a player called Angel Di Maria. Author of a hat-trick at La Beaujoire, Thursday, February 23, the Argentinian dashed the hopes of FC Nantes, eliminated by the Italian club in the Europa League play-offs. After their first leg in Italy (1-1) a week ago, the Canaries and their supporters were carried by a surge of optimism before the return to Beaujoire.
The match of a generation, the one which was to allow the youngest supporters to discover the emotions experienced by the old ones in the European Cup, was finally that of a return to earth. The match changed in twenty short minutes, the time to see Di Maria kill the meeting. “He was the best of 22 players in the first leg“, was however wary Antoine Kombouaré in a press conference on Wednesday.
The Nantes coach must now laugh yellow. After the first very good minutes in Nantes, Di Maria extinguished Beaujoire with a coiled strike as sublime as it was sudden (5th). Then the Argentinian, on his own, caused a penalty, the contentious expulsion of Nicolas Pallois and transformed the sentence himself (20th). With two goals down and one player less, the dream scenario is gone. A miracle was needed then.
La Beaujoire in fusion
This did not happen, despite the activity of Ludovic Blas, author of several off-target strikes (8th, 14th), despite the support of the Beaujoire stadium. The public once again ensured the show in the stands throughout the meeting, failing to see the Canaries do it on the ground. The outcome could also have been even more full-bodied, without the symbiosis of the moment between Lafont and his posts. The Nantes goalkeeper, saved three times by his amounts last week, was saved again on the attempt of Filip Kostic (45th + 3), before repelling those of Juan Cuadrado (66th) and Alex Sandro (75th). Lafont could not do anything on Di Maria’s third goal (79th) which finished the Canaries.
While this sweet dream of reaching the knockout stages of the Europa League is fading, FC Nantes will return to the harsh reality of the moment: the club occupies a very lackluster 13th place in Ligue 1 and will have to stick with Rennes, Paris Saint-Germain, Nice, Lyon or Monaco over the next few days. Nantes fans still have the Coupe de France to dream about. The very one they won last year and which allowed them to live this European campaign, which ends in the din of the Beaujoire stadium.