Toulouse wrote one of the most beautiful pages in its history on Thursday, November 9, in a melting Stadium, beating Liverpool, favorites in the Europa League, 3 goals to 2. The last winner of the Coupe de France is thus well placed to continue his adventure. “It’s a historic evening. History for the club, the city, the players. We must appreciate this moment as it should be. It’s a moment that we will remember for a very long time,” coach Carles Martinez rejoiced afterwards.
The Toulouse supporters, two weeks after the slap received at Anfield (5-1) at the current third in the English championship, a monument of European football, hardly dared to believe in an achievement. “On a misunderstanding, it can work,” they joked on a tifo deployed before kick-off, in a self-deprecating reference to the film Les Bronzés sont du ski.
Their TFC was ultimately more successful than Jean-Claude Dusse, the film’s hapless flirt, “finishing” three times and rising to club legend, equal to Maradona’s victorious Naples in 1986. The “misunderstanding » began to take shape when Norwegian striker Aron Donnum scored his first goal in Toulouse colors with a slightly deflected shot (1-0, 36th) after taking the ball from Greek full-back Kostas Tsimikas.
Toulouse saved by video refereeing
The Toulouse residents are rewarded for their higher level of commitment, after the Reds missed the opener with a header from their captain Joe Gomez on the crossbar (4th). Liverpool’s German coach, Jürgen Klopp, may have brought in Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Szoboszlai after half-time, but the Toulouse team, pushed by their home crowd, continued to dominate. The Chilean Gabriel Suazo missed the break goal (47th), denied to the Dutchman Thijs Dallinga a few minutes later for a slight fault before he took revenge with a nice sequence (2-0, 58th).
TFC was denied another goal, from Donnum (66th), for offside, and they surely regretted it when the English reduced the score with an own goal from the unfortunate Cristian Casseres (74th) . The returning Frank Magri (76th) then had the good idea to give some breathing room to his team, who still finished the match in apnea after a further reduction in the score, from Diogo Jota (88th).
Jarell Quansah thought he would equalize after seven minutes of added time, but his goal was invalidated after recourse to video refereeing for a handball from his teammate Alexis Mac Allister at the very start of the action.
Record d’affluence au Stadium
“We would have already been happy with a draw, but we made too many mistakes and Toulouse played well,” admitted Jürgen Klopp. His Reds, who have only lost one match this season so far in all competitions, still remain in control of Group E with 9 points.
The only good news for Liverpool, on a non-sporting level, the father of Luis Diaz, kidnapped at the end of October in Colombia by the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), was released shortly before the start of the match in which the winger participated, obviously relieved.
Toulouse follows two lengths and could secure second place on the next day on November 30, again at home, in the event of success over the Belgians Union Saint-Gilloise, soundly beaten in Linz (3-0) on Thursday evening.
This beautiful European evening, experienced in front of 32,026 people (including 1,200 English), a record attendance at the Stadium since its renovation for Euro 2016, will have made the Toulouse residents forget their bad patch in the championship, where they are currently ranked 14th. .
For their part, still Thursday evening in the Europa League, Rennes won against Panathinaikos (3-1) and Marseille against AEK Athens (2-0). Lille finished with a draw against Slovan Bratislava (1-1).