French football definitely has no equal to make us live disenchanted Thursdays. Season after season, we find ourselves believing in an epic in this Europa League seemingly sized for some of our best clubs. But for five years and the final of Olympique de Marseille (0-3 against Atlético de Madrid), we are desperately waiting for a team to climb to the last square. Thursday's round of 16 return leg, after a favorable toss for Nantes and especially Monaco, may haunt our nights for many weeks. And above all, as in 2020 and 2021, there will not be a single French representative at the knockout stage.

A real disaster when we see that clubs with much less resources like Ferencvaros (Hungary), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine) and Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium) will be. But in fact, who from FC Nantes, Stade Rennais and AS Monaco deserves the donkey cap of the evening/competition? Not to mention that OM was also virtually reversed in the 16th final of the Europa League, before a disastrous management of extra time against Tottenham (1-2) on November 1st. And yes, on a day of the dead we could not announce more the continuation of the French season.



  • Who is the toughest opponent?

We want to consider that Juventus took a terrible blow with the penalty of 15 points suffered last month for accounting fraud. The Turin team may now wander in the middle of the Serie A table, but it remains a giant at the level of the Europa League, with in its ranks a tripotée of high-level internationals. Who can boast, even in the Champions League, of being able to field a Di Maria-Chiesa-Vlahovic triplet? Despite their heroic and sometimes lucky draw (1-1) in the first leg, the Nantes should have achieved two major feats to qualify.

Unstoppable in Ligue 1 in 2023, the Monegasques were instead the favorites of the double opposition with Bayer Leverkusen, modest 10th currently in the Bundesliga. Especially after the success snatched in the final seconds in the first leg in Germany, at the price of a crazy comeback (2-1 in the 73rd, 2-3 in the end).

And what about Stade Rennais, who faced a Shakhtar Donetsk unfortunately in tatters. Compared to the glorious European hours of the best Ukrainian club, there is no longer in the Brazilian nugget squad, nor the prodigy Mykhaïlo Mudryk transferred to Chelsea. And above all, because of the war, the team sees its European Cup matches played in Warsaw (Poland), while having to settle for friendly matches since November 23, date of its last match of the Ukrainian championship.

Winner: The Stade Rennais hands down, you will understand.

  • Whose worst-case scenario?

Difficult to find a trace of an air conditioning as effective as the one activated from the kick-off in a stadium of the Beaujoire which has barely had time to be in fusion. Antoine Kombouaré's men almost attacked the meeting of a lifetime with a whole city behind them and more offensive assets than in the first leg (Delort, Simon, plus Ganago on the bench). And yet, in 20 minutes, a double of a diabolical Angel Di Maria and a severe expulsion of a Nicolas Pallois gladiator ultimate in the first leg (0-2, 0-3 in the end), the dream had already totally vanished. A complete nightmare.

The other two French teams were able to believe much more. Picked cold (0-1, 13th), AS Monaco was virtually qualified again... for two minutes thanks to Ben Yedder's equaliser (1-1, 19th), before the second German goal (1-2, 21st). But frankly, when Embolo scored a hypra clutch goal (2-3, 84th) and synonymous with extra time, we could not help but think that the momentum was Monegasque. But Nübel gave us a series of shots on goal at the Lloris level, and Matazo smashed the German crossbar (2-3, 3-5 t.a.b.).


Belocian's tears...#SRFCSHA pic.twitter.com/QEynoSg6yq

— CANAL+ Foot (@CanalplusFoot) February 23, 2023

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The epilogue was the same at the end of the night for Stade Rennais, with this aftertaste of "OK, French football is unable to win any series of penalty shootouts, is that the thing? ". Mandanda could have taken advantage of the unframed attempts of Bondar and Sikan, which miraculously put the Bretons back in the game (from 1-3 to 3-3). But no, Doku, Meling and Ugochokwu all failed at the end of the night (2-1, 4-5 t.a.b). Before that, Bruno Genesio's men had in practice done the hardest by reversing the defeat (2-1) of the first leg thanks to Toko Ekambi (1-0, 52nd) and Salah (2-0, 106th). But the goal against his side of the young defender Jeanuël Belocian (18 years old), in tears and "devastated" (according to his coach), one minute from the end of the extra time, prevented the qualification (2-1, 119th).

Winner: Admit that Rennes supporters are the ones who slept the least after this csc. We do not forget the scenario of Nantes-Juve, which totally prevented the Beaujoire from vibrating, but the distress of Belocian almost at the buzzer, plus the dramaturgy of a series of penalties revived, but which never turns on the right side (or almost) for the French teams, it remains above.


  • Who is the worst reaction to?

As often in their European campaign beyond their ambitions, Antoine Kombouaré and the Nantes have analyzed their meeting well. "We were not up to the event, there is nothing to say, breathed the coach of the Canaries. We all missed our game. There is no frustration, no disappointment, because Juve were superior to us. Cold and realistic, RAS.

On the ASM side, who had the biggest advantage compared to the first leg and who could feed dreams of epic, we expected a rant from Philippe Clement. It was quite the opposite: "I am disappointed, like all those who love Monaco. But I'm more proud than disappointed. For the last four months, there have been fantastic moments, I have already been very proud of them." OK, so the biggest pride of the Monegasque coach's season is to have been taken out by the 10th of the German championship after winning away. Oh and a little bonus in the sauce of Deschamps: "A penalty shootout is the casino". On Thursday evening, he will now be able to train serenely with his players at the real casino of Monte-Carlo.

Lyon fans couldn't help but smile into the night, discovering Bruno Genesio's reaction. "I told my youngsters that I was proud of them," said the former OL coach. Matches like this will make us grow. We did a lot of good things in this competition, but to exist in these competitions, you also need a little experience. Nor can we envisage having very high ambitions with very young players. The perennial excuse of youth on the Genesio side, while a usual defensive taulier like Arthur Theate (22) spent the game on the bench like Joe Rodon (25). Similarly, Flavien Tait (30) only came into play at the end of the match, when Croatian international Lovro Majer (25) had already paid the price of coaching a Genesio in the hard, to be replaced in the 71st minute by Lesley Ugochukwu (18), unfortunate in the penalty shootout. There are days like that when everything is not going well, there are days when everything goes to the c..., everything flows.

Final winner: If Philippe Clement pockets the palm of the worst reaction with AS Monaco, Bruno Genesio's Stade Rennais deserves to close this Top of the flops of the Europa League in the lead.

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  • Pays de la Loire