“It’s terrible! » In the comments for Ligue 1+, Xavier Domergue clearly understood the seriousness of the situation. We were playing the 75th minute of Lens-Nantes on Friday evening when the Canaries, obliged to win to still believe in maintaining, got their best chance of the match.
After a poorly negotiated ball by Samson Baidoo, Matthis Abline headed for goal. The Nantes striker chose the strike, and found Robin Risser’s post. There was, however, a pass to be made for Ignatius Ganago, alone in front of the empty goal… This action could have allowed Vahid Halilhodzic’s men to open the score, and prolong the hope of a miracle hold. We know what happened next, with this goal from young Mezian Mesloub (16 years old), which sealed the fate of the Yellow and Green.
Even if Abline had served Ganago, the road to Nantes would still have been very long. We should have held on to this victory at Bollaert until the end, hoped for a defeat for Auxerre against Nice on Sunday, then beat Toulouse on the last day while praying that AJA would lose at Lille. In this scenario, the FCN would then have been a barrage, with two more matches to negotiate to save itself.
Matthis Abline, not solely responsible…
In short, this action poorly concluded by Matthis Abline does not send Nantes to Ligue 2 on its own. A sad symbol above all, it is only a drop of water in a total fiasco, that of a team with 5 victories in 33 days, and the Canaries supporters know well who are primarily responsible. For two months, the Loire Brigade has walled itself in silence and only comes out to demand the departure of the Kita, father and son.
However, Abline does not escape criticism because the players, inevitably, have not been at the expected level this season. The French international hopefuls had some flashes, like his goal on the Paris FC field, or his big match against OM last weekend, where this time he found Ganago before scoring a nice goal himself. But his performance was undoubtedly insufficient (6 goals and 4 assists in 32 Ligue 1 matches) for a player valued at 50 million euros last summer by president Waldemar Kita.
It is not easy to manage to exist in a team as suffering as this historically weak FCN, and Abline has often found himself condemned to individual exploits in order to exist. But he has sometimes been criticized for his lack of effort on the field (notably during Ahmed Kantari’s time on the bench), and sometimes individualistic behavior, like this compilation of his match against OM published during the week on his social networks. No doubt inappropriate, given the precarious situation of his club, and now desperate.
