A feat and then gone! Beaten this Wednesday, February 4 on the Lorient pitch (2-0), Paris FC was eliminated from the Coupe de France at the round of 16 stage and failed to follow up after its historic victory against Paris Saint-Germain in mid-January (0-1).
With a composition largely reworked compared to the last Ligue 1 matches, including the return of Julien Lopez, captain this Wednesday evening, and the presence from the kick-off of recruits Luca Koleosho, Diego Coppola and Marshall Munetsi, Paris FC offered a rather pleasant game but ended up cracking at the very start of the second half.
In front of just over 13,000 spectators, Olivier Pantaloni’s men found the fault from a corner. With his head, Diego Coppola pushed the ball directly into the axis directly into the feet of Noah Cadiou. Isolated, the Guadeloupean was able to roll up his shot and get rid of Obed Nkambadio (55th).
However, it was Stéphane Gilli’s men, players, who were the most dangerous in the first half. On a superb opening from Marshall Munetsi, Julien Lopez delivered a precise cross to Willem Geubbels who failed to control the ball (14th). Ten minutes later, it was Nhoa Sangui, who came to compensate for the absence of Hamari Traoré on the right of the Parisian defense, who tried his luck. His powerful shot from the right from the edge of the area, on target, was deflected at the last minute by a Lorient defender (23rd). Shortly after him, Marshall Munetsi in turn tried his luck from afar. His attempt from the right, diverted, ended up in the hands of Bingourou Kamara (33rd).
A thrill but no success for Immobile
But little by little, the Merlus physically took the measure of the Parisians and above all managed to pierce their midfield to offer themselves great counter-attacks. For a long time, and as during their exploit against PSG in the previous round, Paris FC was able to count on a great Obed Nkambadio, solid on Jean Makedo’s attempt (34th). He also accurately deflects a shot from Kouassi (11th). Before the opening score, he was also on the right trajectory with an attempted header from Ajdei (52nd).
The simultaneous entries of Ilan Kebbal, Rudy Matondo and Ciro Immobile (58th) did not make the difference. The Italian striker, who arrived a few days ago in the capital, was only able to afford a slight thrill (73rd), on an uncontrolled point-blank shot, before seeing his defense crack. Launched in depth, Le Bris could cross at ground level and deceive Mbow who ended up deflecting the ball into his own cage (82nd).
Obed Nkambadio avoided the 3-0 in added time on a final attempt by Merlus, but not elimination. With this defeat, Paris FC will now focus on the championship. As the coach, Stéphane Gilli, recalled at a press conference this Tuesday, remaining in the elite remains “the priority”, the primary “objective” of this season. “We know that it is very important for the club, the development and the project,” he said. 14th in the Ligue 1 standings, Paris FC has the opportunity to – and must already – relaunch on Sunday at Auxerre. An opponent over whom he has an eight-point lead.
