Nantes relapses. A week after claiming the scalp of OGC Nice, FC Nantes welcomed Olympique Lyonnais to their home ground at the end of the 28th day of Ligue 1, this Sunday. A crucial meeting for the Western club, obliged to accumulate the maximum number of points to ensure its survival in the French elite. Deprived of its public following the closed session recorded by the LFP, Nantes nevertheless took the match the right way by opening the score shortly after a quarter of an hour of play thanks to Matthis Abline, who took advantage of Moises Simon’s injury to score points by adding a second goal to his credit after the one scored last weekend against the Aiglons.
Present in the engagement, involved in the forward races as well as in the defensive withdrawals, the Canaries confirmed their new face since the return to the bench of Antoine Kombouaré. While a second consecutive success was taking shape for Nantes, the locals fell back into their ways in the second half. Trailing for more than an hour of play, Lyon found the necessary resources to turn the game around in the space of two minutes. Led by Alexandre Lacazette, scorer of his 14th goal of the season in Ligue 1, Les Gones made up for their deficit before incoming Malick Fofana gave his team the advantage. In added time, Gift Orban came to increase the score and allow the Rhone club to continue in the championship, a few days after qualifying for the final of the Coupe de France.
The confession of Pedro Chirivella, the anger of Antoine Kombouaré
As a result, OL are back in the race for Europe while Nantes, beaten for the 7th consecutive time at home, remains stuck in a dangerous 15th position. But apart from the disappointment generated by this disappointment, an arbitration decision did not go to the Canaries’ side. In the duel with Nathan Zeze, Lacazette was guilty of elbowing the Nantes player in the head. Simply warned, the OL captain should not have finished the match according to Pedro Chirivella. “For me it is red, I am in front. He has no possibility of playing the ball, it is a voluntary gesture. It’s not the first time, it won’t be the last. The VAR is there for nothing. But we can regret our match, we will have to raise our heads… At 10 without their best player, I don’t know what it would have been”estimated the Spanish midfielder at the microphone of Prime Video before being joined by his trainer.
If the main person concerned went into a rage over this contentious action, clinging in passing with one of Pierre Sage’s deputies, Antoine Kombouaré tried to obtain explanations at the end of the meeting as he revealed in front of the cameras. “The referees were kind enough to receive me, we listened to our respective arguments and everyone remained stuck to their positions. What did I wish for? Let him go see the VAR! Of course Lacazette didn’t do it on purpose, but the gesture was not controlled. It’s a red card, period.”, assured the 60-year-old coach. Although very angry with the refereeing of the day, the Kanak still praised the performance of Les Gones, admitting in passing that his team should have “be able to defend better to take a point”. In other words, Nantes will quickly have to move on to something else to hope to definitively break with its negative spiral and ensure its survival at the end of the season. A reaction is therefore expected on the Le Havre lawn next Sunday.
Pub. THE
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