The Canaries’ European dream in the Europa League continues. Who believed it, a year and a half ago when FC Nantes was playing its survival in Ligue 1 in a stifling barrage against Toulouse. At the end of an unexciting match, Antoine Kombouaré’s protégés made the difference in the final, against Olympiakos this Thursday evening, to go snatch their qualification in the round of 16 of the competition (0-2). “We are seriously ill“, loose Pedro Chirivella, all smiles.
A long nap before Mohamed rings the alarm clock
For a long time, the best Nantes actions took place in the stands. While Nantes achieved a first half “at an amateur level” according to Antoine Kombouaré, the 700 or so supporters of the Yellows kept singing in a stadium largely shunned by their Greek counterparts. On the ground and with the exception ofa goal from Evann Guessand from a corner disallowed on offside at the start of the game, the Canaries, largely overhauled, experienced a lot of difficulties and had a lot of waste. And if they returned to the locker room with a goalless draw, it was thanks to Alban Lafont, author of two very high class parades.
So I had a lot of fun receiving the ball between the lines.
“I said what I was thinking on the break to the boys“, recalls Antoine Kombouaré. Annoyed, the technician launched Ludovic Blas from the start of the second period. The moment “where it all began” to take up a popular song in the ranks of Nantes fans. “I found myself in the heart of the gamerejoices number 10. I was surprised because I was quite alone in that area. So I had a lot of fun receiving the ball between the lines.“His happiness became contagious at the edge of the last ten minutes when the midfielder distilled a marvel of center for Mostafa Mohamed whose helmet strike left no chance for the Greek goalkeeper.
See you Monday afternoon for the draw
Generous, the Egyptian absolutely wanted to return the favor to his teammate. While the scoreboard indicated the 90th minute, FC Nantes killed the little suspense that remained in this meeting by registering a second goal, sumptuous in its construction. Launched into the area by Moussa Sissoko, still in difficulty in the midfield, Mostafa Mohamed split with a majestic aerial heel in the race of Ludovic Blas. A small lobe later, the Canaries had done their part of the job to grab second place.
In the other encounter”of this mini-championship“As Nicolas Pallois calls it, Qarabag should not have won to allow Kombouaré’s proteges to qualify.”When our game ended, we saw that there were seven minutes of added time for them“, confides Chirivella. A singular scene, all the players then gathered on the lawn, around a tablet, to watch feverishly the end of a meeting which ended with a parity score. The moment when all the players exulted while running, arms towards the sky, in the direction of the parking lot of Nantes.
“They made noise the whole gameemphasizes Pallois. We celebrated it together, it’s a great reward for everyone.“In the dressing room, many confessed their wish to draw Barcelona into the Round of 32.”There are only really big teams now, anyway“, continues Dennis Appiah. Juventus Turin, Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting Lisbon, Sevilla FC, Chaktior Donetsk, RB Salzburg or Ajax Amsterdam are among the potential opponents of FC Nantes, which will be fixed this Monday in early afternoon Incredible!