FC Nantes head coach Antoine Kombouaré has lauded his players following their gutsy away draw against Juventus in their Europa League playoff round. Nantes attacking midfielder Ludovic Blas struck at the half hour mark to cancel out Dušan Vlahović’s early opener, leaving all to play for next Thursday when Les Canaris will host I Bianconeri at a sold-out Stade de la Beaujoire for the return leg.
In his press conference attended by L’Equipe, Kombouaré stated that the second leg will be the hardest, because an offended Juventus side will have a score to settle. “They’ll come to our place with great ambitions“, underlines the Kanak. The Nantes head coach, who returned to his formative club two years ago to steer them clear of a disastrous Ligue 2 relegation, is now one game away from a European giant-killing. “To achieve such a feat, a crazy one, we’ll need to produce two great games. Tonight, what we showed was great.”
However, Kombouaré was disappointed in Nantes’ first half, that was mostly dominated by the hosts. The Nantes’ boss singled out his side’s timidity and lack of precision. “We wanted to protect our goal, but we were unable to support our strikers.” Les Canaris will need a complete performance if they want to overthrow the Massimiliano Allegri-led team next Thursday.
GFFN | Bastien Cheval