Nantes faces Juventus this Thursday (9 p.m.) in the Europa League play-off, 27 years after the same clash in the Champions League semi-final.
There will be a touch of nostalgia in Claude Makélélé, Nicolas Ouédec or Japhet N’Doram, when they turn on their television this Thursday evening (9 p.m.), to see FC Nantes tread the Turin lawn of Juventus. 27 years before this round-trip Europa League dam, qualifying for the round of 16, the Canaries were already challenging the Bianconeri, in the semi-finals of the Champions League. They had never done better before. They have never done better since.
In 2023, Nantes looks like Tom Thumb. In 1996, too. “The anomaly is that we are in the last four», Poses the former side Serge Le Dizet in the columns of The Team . The Canaries were ranked 2nd in the group stage, ahead of Porto but behind Panathinaikos. They had eliminated Spartak Moscow in the quarter-finals (2-0, 2-2). Their form, at the time of going to Turin on April 3, was not that of a French champion who had lined up 32 matches without defeat, a record which still stands in Ligue 1.
Vice, profession and maturity at Juventus
Above all, Nantes, without coming as an expiatory victim, did not evolve in the sphere of the Old Lady. “These are not at all the same requirementspresents Didier Deschamps to The Team he who was in his 2e season at the Italian club. Nantes’ goal was to win too, but at Juve it was in the DNA. We drew, it was catastrophic. We lost, it was a tragedy.On the way out, in what was then called the Stade des Alpes, the Nantes people fell into the trap.
«At the level of vice, there was a world between them and us“, acknowledges the titular defender, Eddy Capron. Bruno Carotti, sent off just before half-time for two yellow cards (45e), pays the price. In West France Jocelyn Gourvennec, holder on the way, denounces “home arbitration». «The balance of power shifted for them because they had more business, more maturity“, he develops. “While we feel that we have not been overwhelmed so far, we lose the thread of the match, regrets Franck Renou, substitute and scorer in the return match. The feeling of injustice takes over.»
“Fabulous atmosphere” in Nantes, remembers Deschamps
Gianluca Vialli (49e1-0) and Vladimir Jugovic (65e, 2-0) condemn Nantes to a feat on the return. “We did what was necessary to have a good margin, analyzes Deschamps with hindsight. As much as they had made a Champions League semi-final match on the return leg, as much on the way out, well … the difference was seen.»
On the way back, ina fabulous atmosphere at La Beaujoire“(Deschamps), in front of more than 30,000 spectators, Nantes does all the racing behind. Vialli opens the scoring again (17e), Decroix replies (43e), Paulo Sousa reassures Juve (50e), N’Doram equalized in turn (69e) and Renou symbolically allows Nantes to beat a European cador (82e, 3-2). The “Nantes game” driven by Coco Suaudeau, formidable on the counter-attack, is not enough against the future winner of the C1.
«I think coach Suaudeau had absolutely nothing to envy (Marcelo) Lippi“, brandishes Gourvennec, who confides to having kept”one of (his) jerseys and that of Pietro Vierchowod“, titular central defender in both matches. “I remember that I felt a certain pride, continues the Nantes midfielder converted to coach. We had done honor to the club, to previous generations under the aegis of José Arribas Jean Vincent, coach Suaudeau of the 80s.“If Antoine Kombouaré will never have the stylistic influence of his illustrious predecessors, he can still tell a new starry story to Nantes supporters.