After twenty consecutive matches without defeat, in all competitions, since September 12, 2025 and the reception of Rodez (0-1), Le Mans FC fell on the field of the Auguste-Delaune stadium in Reims, this Tuesday, February 3, 2026 in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France (3-0). Eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain at the same stage of the competition last year, the Sarthois will still not see the quarter-finals which they have not reached since the 2010-2011 edition. At the end of the match, Sang et Or technician Patrick Videira deplored a match that was too average on the part of his team, already looking forward to the derby against Laval, Saturday February 7 (2 p.m.), at the Marie-Marvingt stadium.
Patrick Videira, Nant FC’s enthusiast: “Defeats always hurt your head. Afterwards, I think that this evening, there was a gap between us. I think we weren’t up to par. I think they were better than us. We had too much waste, we gave them too much to eat. They put us in difficulty with depth management in the first half. We had difficulty getting out of the density. There are a lot of things to say about tonight’s match. Now, the reality is that we are going to bounce back and that on Saturday we have a very important match at home against Laval, the derby, so we will have to calmly wash our heads and get back into battle.
I told them (the players) that we had a margin which is minimal and that we lowered the cursor compared to this great team – even if it was effective – from Reims. They made an effort, I can’t fault them in terms of their state of mind, but we did things that were far too average, especially in our use of the ball. We had the impression of having a certain form of helplessness, even if we know that this team is very athletic, is very powerful, and that is part of its qualities.
It’s far too easy to make excuses for being tired. Fatigue is part of the game but I repeat, today we must be able to do much better to be able to compete against these types of teams.
In relation to squad management, today there are boys who couldn’t start either. (Antoine) Rabi (llard) can’t start yet, Erwan (Colas) had a lot of matches but when I start them today (Taylor Luvambo and Baptiste Guillaume up front), I am convinced that they are capable of doing great things. The sequence of three matches is always complicated. We have to be careful. We lost Dame Gueye again yesterday, who hurt her (right) knee. You have to deal with it. It doesn’t matter which players are on the field, they are there. Today, a whole group did not respond, including me. »
“A great match on Saturday to move on”
Edwin Quarshie, midfielder and captain of Le Mans FC: “We would have, in quotes, preferred to lose differently. Already continuing this great series but it had to happen. Unfortunately, it happened there, in that way, but I think it will also allow us to get back on our feet, despite the fairly heavy score. We have a great match on Saturday to move on.
We are always learning. We must not neglect the fact that we have quite a few matches to go, there were glitches, we had to share a little playing time between everyone. It wasn’t easy. It’s true that against this team, we feel that they have the squad to put together these matches. We are learning but we will face them again at the beginning of May. We’re going to say that we can’t wait to see them again.
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The Coupe de France matches allowed us to perform well in the championship. Unfortunately, it stops today but there will still be a series of matches which will mean that we will quickly be able to get back into it. We will learn from this defeat to come back stronger.
I think that at 1-0, we can perhaps still come back. Afterwards, unfortunately, we took this second goal, which I think hurts us, it’s hard to come back.
The goal is always to do better. The goal today was to at least make it to the quarterfinals. There, that was not the case. We hope to do better next season. »
