• Toulouse and Nantes face each other on Thursday (8.45 p.m.) and Sunday (6 p.m.) in play-offs to climb or stay in Ligue 1.

  • 20 Minutes

    sifted through the strengths and weaknesses of these two teams.

We meet once again.

One year after leaving the elite, Toulouse (3rd in Ligue 2) offers itself over two matches the possibility of returning to Ligue 1. For this, Patrice Garande's men will have to rule out FC Nantes, with a first meeting at the Stadium, Thursday (8:45 p.m.), then a second, at La Beaujoire, Sunday (6 p.m.).

Dynamics, individual talents, psychological state of the two teams…

20 Minutes

scrutinizes this duel of fear and gets wet (a little) on the name of the winner of these dams.

The strengths of the two formations

Goals galore on both matches? Toulouse and Nantes, it is first of all a duel of talented attackers. The TFC finished on the third step of the podium with the best attack (71 goals). We must add the three pawns to get rid of Grenoble on Saturday to achieve this double confrontation with the 18th in L1. Out of the question to play "small arm", according to the coach of TFC Patrice Grande: "We will stay on our identity, our way of playing. Play this game without denying us. […] It will be necessary to be rigorous with the loss of the ball. I want us to continue to attack by adding this element. And on the artillery side, Toulouse is well supplied with Amine Adli (best player in L2), author of 8 goals and 7 assists, Englishman Rhys Healey (14 goals) and Vakoun Bayo (10 goals). Colombian Deiver Machado,left piston in the 3-1-4-2 of Garande will bring its ecot on the offensive plan. Manu Koné and Brecht Dejeagere will be the first launch pads in the middle.

In Nantes, we also put a lot on the offensive individual quality.

Eighteenth in L1, the Canaries are nevertheless ranked in 12th place in attacks.

They owe it in large part to their trio: Moses Simon (6 goals, 6 assists), Ludovic Blas (10 goals, 4 assists) and Randal Kolo Muani (9 goals, 4 assists).

Nantes have scored 47 goals this season, including almost a quarter (14 goals) scored in the last five meetings (four wins and one loss)!

The great center forward (1.97 m) Kalifa Coulibaly, author of three goals in the last four games, will also be one to watch in Antoine Kombouaré's 4-4-2.

The weaknesses of the two formations

Again, there are similarities between Toulouse and Nantes.

Both teams clearly have defensive weaknesses, a sometimes a little clumsy rearguard.

The Norwegian Ruben Gabrielsen and Bafodé Diakité illustrate this fault on the side of Toulouse, Nicolas Pallois and Jean-Charles Castelletto, on the Nantes side.

TFC only finished 7th in L2 defense with 42 goals taken while FCN finished 12th in L1 defense with 55 goals conceded (and only 5 games without scoring a goal throughout the year).

The two teams paradoxically rely on two good goalkeepers: Maxime Dupé with the Violets and Alban Lafont with the Canaries.

So who will emerge victorious from this jump-off?

Many questions arise before this double confrontation. In particular that of the psychological state of Nantes after their setback (1-2) against Montpellier on Sunday. "Many thought that they [the players] would be on vacation tonight [Sunday evening], we still have a week's worth of rab ...", blurted out, annoyed, Antoine Kombouaré on Sunday. The depression was immense not only in the locker room, but also in the corridors of Jonelière at the beginning of the week. The FCN is however fortunate to have a coach who has already had the experience of dams. In June 2019, Kanak had fled with Dijon (against Lens).

With a short header,

20 Minutes

 gave FCN the advantage.

Since the arrival of Kombouaré in February, the Canaries are ranked 7th in L1.

They remain after all also on four victories in the last five meetings.

Saturday, after the qualification against Grenoble, a large majority of Toulouse wanted to avoid a team in play-offs: that of… Nantes.

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Yves Bertucci will give some tips

The current assistant to Antoine Kombouaré was four months ago that of Patrice Garande, coach of the TFC.

Yves Bertucci could well give some tips to the Canaries for these dams.

Garande doesn't care: “If the question is' am I going to change something because Yves Bertucci spent three or four months here?” My answer is no.

Yves knows our style of play. Antoine is a friend, we know each other well.

Now, with the video, everyone knows everything about everyone.

If it was enough to watch the video of the opponent to be able to beat him… ”

  • League 1

  • League 2

  • Antoine Kombouare

  • Soccer

  • Toulouse

  • Nantes

  • Sport