“But what are you talking about here? “, “no, but is he going to keep his mouth shut? », “It’s shameful, what is this fucking VAR for? “. For Prime Video viewers on Sunday evening, one of the main benefits of the sad behind closed doors for this FC Nantes-OL match was to be able to enjoy all the bloody replies from Antoine Kombouaré after a big play at the start of the second half . Still in the midst of a fight to maintain their position (17th with two points ahead of play-off Lorient), Nantes have long believed that they would achieve the big blow of this 28th day of Ligue 1.
Ahead from the 16th minute of play thanks to Matthis Abline (1-0), the Canaries could have found themselves in numerical superiority when Lyon captain Alexandre Lacazette violently hit the face of their defender Nathan Zézé with his elbow. Bloodied at the arcade, the young player from Nantes was still able to take his place with a (sublime) swimming cap on his head.
“It’s a red card every day”
But despite the violence of the aerial clash, followed by immediate apologies from Alexandre Lacazette, who “did not intend to hurt” according to his trainer Pierre Sage, Jérôme Brisard did not wish to exclude the former striker from ‘Arsenal. A decision which therefore went down very badly in the eyes of Antoine Kombouaré, almost as offensive on the subject in the post-match press conference as towards members of the Lyon staff at the time.
“ I’m very angry with the referee today. The fourth referee [Benjamin Lepaysant] said to me “We checked, up there [l’arbitre assistant vidéo, Pierre Gaillouste]he tells us that it’s a shoulder hit”. I asked Mr. Brisard several times to go see the VAR, that’s the only thing I want. Afterwards, in the locker room, when I see the images, I’m scandalized, that’s the word. I’m upset because we trust the refereeing body. And there, he can tell me what he wants, but on Lacazette’s gesture, It’s a red card every day, it’s a nudge. »
Lacazette then scores… by countering Zézé!
Only warned of a yellow card at the time, after a contentious action that Jérôme Brisard did not review on video, Alexandre Lacazette was therefore able to stay on the pitch… and equalize in the 75th minute of play, by blocking a clearance of the unfortunate Nathan Zézé (1-1). A scenario that was inevitably hard to cope with for FC Nantes stuck in a stressful end to the season, and which suffered in the process a second goal from Malick Fofana (1-2, 77th), before the coup de grace from Gift Orban (1-3 , 90th+7).
“We have to believe that the mistake suffered by little Nathan Zézé disturbed the players a little, because afterwards, we stopped playing,” estimates Antoine Kombouaré. We have to do things better but at 1-0 with a red card in the face, maybe it’s not the same final score…” It remains to be seen whether this controversial episode will have an even more painful echo for FC Nantes on May 18, on the evening of the 34th day of Ligue 1.