Eighth shooter in the penalty shootout, Arnold Temanfo, the defender of Annecy, deceives Vincent Demarconnay. After keeping his team afloat, which missed three attempts (Kebbal, Mandouki, Chergui), the Paris FC goalkeeper had to bow (5-6 on penalties). It’s finish. The match for history turned into new disillusionment for Paris FC. One more in this season where he has accumulated so much, as well as disappointing performances. Forty later, the Parisian club will not experience a new quarter-final. The Coupe de France could have saved the season. From now on, it promises to be long, very long… Even if it will be necessary to save the essentials by already ensuring the maintenance in Ligue 2.
It becomes a tiresome refrain but we can still regret the state of Charléty’s lawn. Just shameful… Even in Vierzon, this Wednesday evening, the playing conditions were better. After the reception of Amiens on Saturday (the 4th game in 11 dayss), a patch of 3,000 m2 of lawn will be changed. A simple plaster on a wooden leg. We will have to wait until the end of the season for real decisions to be made, certainly with the installation of a hybrid lawn.
“Come and play on it!” joked Thierry Laurey. There are areas where it was unplayable. It’s sad. I’m more pissed off about that than the elimination. It’s not two rakes at half-time that will change much… We have to adapt to this hostile environment where it is difficult to maneuver the ball. We can do shot put, javelin but that’s all, except a football field… It’s already good to try to make a semblance of football on such a field…”
A monstrous Khalid Boutaïb
In this L2 duel, between two teams who faced each other on January 13 (2-0 for FCA), it was Annecy, however deprived of five holders, who entered the match the fastest. Vincent Demarconnay had to be decisive on a strike from Shamal (13th) and ahead of Rocchi (17th). Despite the efforts of Alimami Gory, who multiplied the overflows and the races, Paris FC really struggled to sublimate despite the stakes. The latest recruit, Sekou Sanogo, who had his second start in a row, even though he had not played in an official match for more than two months with Red Star Belgrade, was released quickly through injury (18th). He suffers from a blow to his knee.
Same fate for Gory, the best Parisian, hit in the shoulder (62nd). Just after, Annecy opened the scoring with a very generous penalty converted by Kevin Farade (0-1, 68th), from the Paris region (PSG, Entente SSG, Bobigny, Créteil).
But the returning Khalid Boutaïb, who was making a comeback (he played 73 minutes with the reserve on Saturday) after his cruciate ligament rupture in May, was monstrous. After making a nice deflection for Lebobang Phiri, who found the post (88th), the 35-year-old Moroccan international striker equalized (1-1, 90th). Entering in the 77th minute, Boutaïb changed the end of the match and finally thrilled the public of Charléty who only asked for that. In the last ten minutes, the atmosphere rose crescendo. But the penalty shootout, even if it was breathtaking (the teams separated on the eighth shot), was fatal to Paris FC. Definitely, at the PFC, the big disappointments – dams against Lens in 2019 dams against Sochaux in 2022 – often rhyme with missed penalties …
“We knew that Khalid could only play 15 minutes, continues Laurey. He made the difference. Otherwise, I saw the images of the penalty awarded in Annecy. There is no fault. If we whistle on that, there will be a lot of penalties every weekend. The only response from the referee is to give me a yellow card… Again, it’s not the elimination that annoys me but all these little things. For me, the players did the right thing on this pitch. We are of course disappointed because we would have liked to skip this round. This would have allowed us to maintain momentum and involve more players. We will have to do without. »
Match sheet
PARIS FC C (L2) – ANNECY (L2) 6-5 aux t.a.b. (1-1, 0-0).
Spectators: 4,216.
Referee: Mr. Gaillouste.
Buts. Paris FC: Boutaib (90th); Annecy : Faraday (68th sp)
Paris FC : Demarconnay – Koré, Chergui, Kanté (cap.), Hanin – Lasne (Boutaïb, 77th), Sanogo (Mandouki, 18th), Iglesias (Phiri, 62th) – Gory (Lopez, 62th), Caddy, Chahiri (Kebbal, 77th) Entr. : Laurey.
Annecy : Callens – Falconnier (Temanfo, 63e) , Mouanga, Jean, Bastian – Billemaz, Goncalves, Rocchi (cap.) (El Jahouri, 76e) – Balde (Camara, 85e), Bosetti (Testud, 63e), Shamal (Farade, 63e). Entr. : Guyot.