No favorite fell into the trap of the Coupe de France during the matches played on Saturday January 21 for the knockout stages of the competition. For some, like Lyon, Reims and Toulouse, it was a fairly quiet day; on the other hand, other residents of Ligue 1 were scared like Lorient or Angers, the red lantern of the French championship
Olympique Lyonnais kicked off the Coupe de France this afternoon with a home run against Chambéry, a national 3 club (fifth division), thanks to a hat-trick from captain Alexandre Lacazette. The striker scored three almost identical goals, taking home good crosses from his teammates at close range (11e33e then 67e).
At the start of the evening, the other Ligue 1 teams enforced the hierarchy by emerging victorious from their confrontations against clubs from the lower levels. Reims thus played against Les Herbiers (national 2), a club which had reached the final of the competition in 2018, only failing at the time against PSG (2-0). The striker on loan from Arsenal, Folarin Balogun, opened the scoring with a penalty taking the goalkeeper on the wrong foot (37e), then Alexis Flips widened the gap with a superb curling shot which left the Vendée goalkeeper motionless (64e), before Martin Adeline increased the score (87e).
The good dynamics of Toulouse
Toulouse confirmed its current good momentum by also passing this round of sixteenths, thanks to its victory over Ajaccio (2-0) in the only duel between Ligue 1 clubs of the day. Faced with a Corsican team weakened by ten absences and which remained on a shipwreck in Monaco in L1 (7-1), the TFC logically made the difference after the hour mark with two goals in quick succession signed Zakaria Aboukhlal (66e) and Rafael Ratao (70e). All this twenty days after his success in Ligue 1 in the same place against the same opponent and on the same score!
“It was important to qualify in front of our supporters, underlined Toulouse coach Philippe Montanier. We said we would play the Cup thoroughly and that’s what we’re going to do until the end. »
For its part, Angers got scared against Olympique Strasbourg (Regional 1, sixth division) in the evening, winning 1-0 in pain, after having already eliminated the most famous Strasbourg club, Racing ( L1), in the previous turn. Angevin defender Miha Blazic scored the only goal of the match after a corner (16e). Despite this advantage and the five divisions gap, the FCOSK 06 manhandled the bottom side of Ligue 1 at the Stade de La Meinau by obtaining several clear chances, in vain. Olympique Strasbourg had eliminated Clermont in the previous round, but the adventure ends there for one of the “Petit Poucet” of the competition.
“We knew that our life was not that. One day or another, we were going to regain anonymity. We crunched into this adventure to the fullest (…) and life goes on »was moved Mohamed Cherief, captain of FCOSK 06 at the microphone of beIN Sports after the meeting.
Paris FC, Grenoble and Rodez qualified
A little earlier, Lorient had struggled to beat Bastia, a Ligue 2 club, (1-1, 4 shots on goal to 1), without Dango Ouattara, who left for Bournemouth, or Terem Moffi, who is about to leave. Even Enzo Le Fée, one of the best Hakes this season, had been left to rest.
In the other matches of the day, Paris FC (Ligue 2) crushed Chamalières (N2) 4 to 0, Grenoble (L2) won against Finisteriens de Plabennec (N3) 1 to 0, and Rodez (L2) s qualified by beating Grasse (N2) at the end of the suspense (0-0, 5 shots on goal to 4).
On Friday, Marseille qualified first for the round of 16 by beating Rennes 1-0 at the Stade Vélodrome, bringing their series of consecutive victories in all competitions to eight.
The rest of the competition takes place on Sunday with in particular the defending champion, Nantes, traveling to Thaon (national 3) and the 100% Ligue 1 duel between Lens and Brest. Monday evening, the last match will oppose the Pays de Cassel, Petit Poucet of Regional 1, to the juggernaut of French football, Paris-Saint-Germain.