Nice and Monaco ensure, Nantes down the drain… What to remember from Saturday’s round of 32

AS Monaco and OGC Nice qualified for the round of 16 on Saturday, with two Ligue 2 teams at their disposal. A feat of arms that Nantes, eliminated by Laval, will not be able to boast of.

The magic of the Cup, but in small doses. The day after Olympique Lyonnais qualified against Bergerac, six matches were scheduled to raise the curtain on one of the posters for the round of 16 of the Coupe de France between US Orléans and Paris Saint-Germain, Saturday January 20. As in the previous round, the Ligue 1 teams almost all held their place.

Contract completed for Nice and Monaco

Traveling to two Ligue 2 teams, the Côte d’Azur clubs delivered serious performances. The Aiglons did the job against Bordeaux (3-2) with a victory acquired thanks to an achievement from Evann Guessan and a double from Morgan Sanson. If the second Girondin goal signed Gaëtan Weissbeck revived the Girondins’ hopes a quarter of an hour from the end, Nice deserves his qualification after having also touched the amounts twice.

For its part, Monaco relied on a man to take its revenge against Rodez (3-1), its gravedigger from last season. First a scorer from a penalty, Wissam Ben Yedder gave his team the lead again after the Ruthenian equalizer, then scored a hat-trick when receiving a cross from young Kassoum Ouattara. The opportunity to pay tribute to Azzedine Meguellatti, the coach who spotted him in Futsal and launched him in CFA, died this week.

Exit from the road for Nantes

Last year’s finalist already gone. Despite the support of La Beaujoire, the Canaries fell on a bone against Laval (0-1). One goal was enough for opportunistic Tango to play a bad trick on FC Nantes. A creation by Malik Tchokounté, with a header, receiving a cross from the co-best passer in Ligue 2, Thibaut Vargas. However, Jocelyn Gourvennec’s men were not varnished during a contentious action. Canary striker Matthis Abline claimed a foul in the area, after contact with the opposing goalkeeper, Maxime Hautbois, who was otherwise solid during the game.

After Lorient, beaten by Sochaux in the round of 32, Nantes is only the second elite team to be eliminated by a team from a lower division. Stade Lavallois is not the only qualified second division club since Valenciennes defeated Paris FC in the North (3-1) and reached the round of 16 for the first time since 2012.

Little Thumb is called Le Puy Foot

The performance of the day is to the credit of Le Puy. Residents of National 2, the Auvergnats eliminated Dunkirk without ever really trembling (2-1). Issiaka Karamoko opened the scoring, before doubling down on the area to retake a penalty sent to the post by one of his teammates. In the red zone in Ligue 2, the Dunkirks made their task even more complicated when Aïman Maurer was sent off on the hour mark.

Also a resident of the fourth national level, Trélissac could have competed for the title of Petit Poucet in the round of 16 at Le Puy if they had held on against Brest. But they were overthrown by the Bretons despite opening the score in the 75th minute (1-2).