A rain of goals fell on the Stade de France! Led by Brecht Dejaegere, the players of Toulouse 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 Championship, 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 people of Toulouse are expected around 6 p.m. at the Capitole, Sunday April 30, to brandish this trophy in front of their supporters. On Saturday, after the match, President Emmanuel Macron presented them with the Cup from the stands for security reasons, without any images being shown on the stadium screens.
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). Now, Nantes, 16th in Ligue 1, fears a nightmarish season with the fear of relegation, a year after having experienced the happiness of a coronation in the Coupe de France.
Boosted in the stands and on the ground, in a Stade de France rarely so boosted (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 (4th).
Percussive on the sides, the Toulouse doubled the bet a few minutes later, still thanks to Logan Costa, and still from the head (10th). 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…
Facing the helpless Nantes people who almost never set foot on the ball during the first half apart from a big chance (12th), the Toulouse people continued their demonstration. On a nice opening from Gabriel Suazo, Thijs Dallinga stole the ball in front of the Nantes goalkeeper (23rd). The Dutch striker pushed the Canaries a little further after a strike from Farès Chaibi (31st).
In fact, Opta’s statistics show it: Toulouse are the first team to score at least four goals in the first half 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.
After several attempts (53rd, 57th, 66th) and pushed by the yellow public, the Nantes people reduced the score on a penalty (75th) converted by Ludovic Blas. But just after (79th), the Toulousain Zakaria Aboukhlal delivered a layer with a nice shot under the crossbar of Lafont.
The Violets were buoyed by around 22,000 molten supporters and the 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 there they are, the Toulouse people”, “who doesn’t jump is not Toulouse” sang the Violets, for some leaning on the railings bristling with peaks, after having deployed a magnificent premonitory tifo: “Let’s bring it back to the square of the Capitol”.
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’s an iconic competition in this country and we’re 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. »
In this final played in a context of social tension, sporting encouragement completely took precedence over social discontent. Even the 49th minute remained calm as the unions called for whistling in rejection of the pension reform. Almost no 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 Nantes people.
“The Pink City is celebrating!” Congratulations to the whole team of Toulouse FC for this victory in the Coupe de France”, reacted in a tweet Emmanuel Macron after the victory of Toulouse in the Coupe de France. “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.
