Toulouse thrashes Nantes and wins its first French Cup

2023-04-29 22:53:00

Urain of goals fell on the Stade de France! Led by Brecht Dejaegere, the Toulouse players largely won (5-1) against FC Nantes in the final of the Coupe de France, Saturday April 29, in Saint-Denis. Nantes, defending champion whose maintenance is not assured in the league, was feverish and was dominated throughout the meeting.

The Violets win their first “official” title since the only title in the history of the city – the Coupe de France 1957 -, obtained at a time when Toulouse played in red and white, is the subject of a dispute between the “TFC”, which has this trophy in its list, and the Federation, which attributes this edition to another “Toulouse FC”, a club that disappeared in 1967 before being reborn under another name, US Toulouse, in 1970.

The Toulouse are expected around 6 p.m. at the Capitol on Sunday April 30 to brandish this trophy in front of their supporters. On Saturday, at the end of the meeting, President Emmanuel Macron presented them with the cup from the stands for security reasons, without an image being shown on the stadium screens.

The kiddest defeat in the final

Toulouse, unleashed, crushed Nantes (5-1). As a symbol, the biggest defeat in the final of the Coupe de France was suffered by the Canaries, in 1970, against Saint-Étienne (5-0). From now on, Nantes, 16^e of Ligue 1, fears a nightmarish season with the fear of relegation, a year after having known the happiness of a coronation in the Coupe de France.

Boosted in the stands and on the ground, in a Stade de France (78,000 spectators) with smoke bombs, tifos and banners, the Violets put pressure on Nantes, completely overwhelmed in defense in the first period. They logically opened the scoring on a corner from Branco van den Boomen shot at the head of Logan Costa, who rose higher than everyone and easily deceived Alban Lafont (4^e).

Hard-hitting on the sides, the Toulouse team doubled the lead a few minutes later, again thanks to Logan Costa, and still with a header (10^e). A winning bet for Philippe Montanier, the Toulouse coach. Established on Saturday, the Cape Verdean had never scored. No player had scored a double so quickly in a Coupe de France final…

Faced with helpless Nantes, who almost never set foot on the ball during the first half apart from a big chance (12^e), Toulouse continued their demonstration. On a nice opening from Gabriel Suazo, Thijs Dallinga stole the ball in front of the Nantes goalkeeper (23^e). The Dutch striker pushed the Canaries a little further after a strike from Farès Chaïbi (31^e).

Moreover, Opta’s statistics show it: Toulouse are the first team to score at least four goals in the first period of a Coupe de France final since Lille against Bordeaux in 1955.

The second period of this surprise poster between these two formations in the second part of the table was much less euphoric.

Uncertainty over Europe

After several attempts (53^e57^e66^e) and pushed by the yellow public, the Nantes people reduced the score on a penalty (75^e) transformed by Ludovic Blas. But, just after (79^e), the Toulousain Zakaria Aboukhlal delivered a layer with a nice shot under the crossbar of Lafont.

The Violets were buoyed by around 22,000 amalgamated supporters and this victory normally offers a ticket to the Europa League next season. But, if AC Milan, which has the same shareholder as Toulouse (the American investment fund RedBird), qualifies for the Champions League or the C3, the “Téfécé” could be deprived of Europe.

“And they are there, the Toulouse”, “who does not jump is not Toulouse”, sang the Violets, for some leaning on the grids bristling with pikes, after having deployed a magnificent premonitory tifo: “Let’s bring it back to Capitol Square.

Logan Costa, defender of Toulouse and author of a double, declared to the microphone of beIN Sports: “It is always a pleasure to win this competition. It is an emblematic competition in this country and we are proud! We did it, we marked the history of the club. Thank you to the supporters for coming and pushing us to the end, and we will now finish the championship well. Now we are entering the big leagues and it is up to us to perform. »

The sportsman has taken precedence over the social

In this final played in a context of social tension, sporting encouragement completely took precedence over social discontent. Even the 49^e minute remained calm as unions called for whistling in rejection of the pension reform. Almost none of the red cards, distributed in front of the stadium but confiscated by security, were waved among the public. Just before the meeting, Emmanuel Macron greeted the players as they left the locker room.

With this heavy defeat, FC Nantes, which won the Cup last year against Nice (1-0), sinks a little more at the end of the season. “The hour of retirement has come for the Kita, the FCN is for sale” and “the Kita, we don’t want them”, brandished and sang the people of Nantes.

“The pink city is celebrating! Congratulations to the whole Toulouse FC team for this victory in the Coupe de France”, reacted in a tweet Emmanuel Macron after the victory of Toulouse. “Mythical”, added the President of the Republic, who had presented the cup to the Toulouse team a few minutes earlier from the stand of the Stade de France.