Nantes, a miraculous victory and hope is reborn

Nantes secured a European play-off match in February Monaco signed a hopeful draw against Ferencvaros, Nantes won on the wire.

Third in the group, Nantes can no longer be joined by Olympiakos and will play at least the Europa League Conference play-offs. But the Canaries have also returned to a point behind Qarabag and can still clinch 2nd place, synonymous with a play-off against a 3rd in the Champions League, in the event of victory next week in Piraeus and missteps by the Azeris against Fribourg.

During a lively and disputed match, Ludovic Blas opened the scoring at the start of the first period (16th), Filip Ozobic equalized from the penalty spot at the start of the second (56th) and Ignatius Ganago, already a scorer in the last two Nantes matches , scored the winning goal (90th + 5).

Antoine Kombouaré had announced a “finale“, but he had also said that the priority of the week would be Sunday’s match against Clermont. The coach therefore left several executives on the bench like Nicolas Pallois, Moses Simon or Moussa Sissoko, but also Ganago.

In the stands, on the other hand, with nearly 31,000 supporters, it was the atmosphere of the great evenings: at the kick-off, the Loire stand multiplied smoke bombs and fireworks, at the assumed risk of being closed in February.

As against Olympiakos

On the field, the Canaries, too messy to keep the ball, suffered from the outset against enterprising Azeris, who had beaten them 3-0 in Baku and who quickly put Alban Lafont to work (9th, 11th, 16th).

And it was against the run of play that they opened the scoring when Pedro Chirivella, very active in midfield, intercepted a too soft throw from goalkeeper Shakhrudin Magomedaliyev to serve Blas, who finished with a low shot ground (1-0, 16th).

Suddenly, everything became easier for the Nantes, who moved the ball much better and in turn put the Azeri goalkeeper to work on strikes from Blas (21st) and Samuel Moutoussamy (34th).

But Qarabag, used to European meetings and safe from any worries in the league, did not give up and equalized on a penalty obtained and converted by Ozobic, for a foul by Lafont (1-1, 56th ).

Almost on the throw-in, it took a big parade from Magomedaliyev to prevent Nantes from regaining the advantage (58th). An indecisive period followed, with chances on both sides.

But as against Olympiakos, where the 2-1 victory had taken shape in the last moments, it was the Nantes who pushed hardest in the last minutes, and Ganago, who entered for the last quarter of an hour and served in the area by Jean-Charles Castelletto, blew up Beaujoire with a powerful strike (2-1, 90th + 5).

See you now on the same lawn against Clermont on Sunday for the men of Kombouaré, 15th in L1, to try to capitalize on this renewed confidence and move away from the red zone in the championship.