Cold snap on French football: Rennes, Nantes and Monaco will not see the quarter-finals after their elimination at home on Thursday in the qualifying play-offs for the knockout stages of the Europa League. Nantes, reduced to ten in the 18th minute after the exclusion of Nicolas Pallois, suffered the law of Juventus and especially of their world champion Angel Di Maria, author of the three goals of the meeting (3-0).
At the Stade Louis-II, Monaco was eliminated on penalties (5-3) by Bayer Leverkusen, after a 3-2 defeat, the same score as their victory in Germany a week ago in the first leg. As for the star match of the evening, at Old Trafford, it turned to the advantage of Manchester United at the expense of FC Barcelona, beaten and eliminated 2-1 after the draw of the first leg (2-2). Robert Lewandowski had however opened the scoring from the penalty spot (18th) for the Catalans, but the English overturned the match by their Brazilians Fred (47th) and Antony (73rd). In Nantes, in Beaujoire on fire despite the pouring rain, Angel Di Maria at the top of his game quickly killed all suspense.
From the 5th minute, the former PSG striker brutally weighed down the atmosphere by placing a splendid curling shot in the top corner, from the right corner of the penalty area. Groggy, the canaries were knocked out a few minutes later when, after a slalom from Di Maria, Nicolas Pallois touched the ball with his arm. Results of the operation: exclusion of Pallois and penalty converted by Di Maria, under the eyes of coach Didier Deschamps. Penalized by fifteen points in the league, Juventus retains a chance of qualifying for the Champions League if they win this Europa League.
Monaco, third in Ligue 1 and winner 3-2 a week ago in Germany, therefore lost by the same score (then 5-3 on penalties). Tenth in the Bundesliga, Xabi Alonso’s Bayer opened the scoring through Florian Wirtz (13th), Wissam Ben Yedder equalized from the penalty spot (19th), then Monaco conceded two new goals from Argentinian Exequiel Palacios (21st) and the French Amine Adli (58th), before snatching the extension by Breel Embolo (84th). But the penalty shootout will have been fatal to the men of Philippe Clement, after the missed shot of the young Belgian Eliot Matazo. The draw for the round of 16 will take place on Friday at UEFA headquarters in Nyon.