Tuesday night, OGC Nice secured a spot in the final by defeating FC Versailles 78 with a score of 2-0. Yesterday, the second semi-final took place between FC Nantes and AS Monaco, where the Canaries won on penalties. Nice Premium invites you to take a look at Nice’s future opponent, who barely escaped relegation last year and is now a French Cup finalist.
If someone had bet on a Nice-Nantes final at the beginning of the season, they would have hit the jackpot.
Admittedly, the successful season for the Gym is not a big surprise either, as the arrival of Christophe Galtier, the reigning Ligue 1 champion with Lille, on the Nice bench promised great things.
But for FC Nantes, it is quite a sensation. As last season, the club from Loire-Atlantique was in a totally different situation.
A very difficult 2020-2021 season
Indeed, last year, Beaujoire’s supporters experienced a really sad season. Christian Gourcuff, who had started his second season with the Canaries, was let go in early December 2020 with only 3 wins in 13 matches.
After an 18-day interim by Patrick Collot without a single victory, the owner and president Waldemar Kita made the surprising decision to bring Raymond Domenech out of retirement to take charge of the team. A decision the French-Polish businessman quickly regretted, as after 8 matches, the former coach of the French national team had a record of 4 draws and 4 losses…
While Nantes was in the 14th position at the time of Gourcuff’s departure, the situation worsened with Collot and then Domenech as the club plunged to the 18th position. Raymond Domenech was thus also dismissed by the Nantes management.
Waldemar Kita had to find a fourth coach for the season for his players, and he then chose an experienced Ligue 1 coach: Antoine Kombouaré.
After a professional playing career started in Nantes, the former defender began coaching in Strasbourg in 2003. He then moved on to 7 other French clubs (Valenciennes, Paris, Lens, Guingamp, Dijon, Toulouse) before arriving in Nantes in February 2021.
The Kanak coach managed not to worsen things but without really improving them as the Nantes club remained 18th in the standings. To retain their place in Ligue 1, the Canaries had to beat Toulouse, 3rd in Ligue 2, and they managed to save themselves in a penalty shootout.
New season, with few changes in the squad, but a lot on the field
While one might have thought that many changes would occur at the club after such a difficult season, the 2021-2022 campaign kicked off with almost the same squad as the previous year. And it seems that was the right choice since today, FC Nantes is in 7th place in Ligue 1 and is a finalist in the French Cup.
There’s no doubt it’s the work of Antoine Kombouaré who managed to steer things right. This season, the Canaries have posed problems for the top teams in the championship. Even when they lost, the Canaries made things difficult for their tough opponents, losing by the smallest margin to Lyon, OM, and Rennes.
They also impressed in several victories against Angers (1-4), Lens (3-2), at Lorient, and most recently against Paris Saint-Germain (3-1) and yesterday against Monaco (2-2/ 3-2 on penalties)
OGC Nice and FC Nantes have already faced each other twice in the championship this season, a significant advantage for the team from the French Riviera who won away in September (0-2) and at home with a score of 2-1 in January.
But the stakes of the next match will obviously be different, and Antoine Kombouaré’s team should not be underestimated as they aim to win their fourth French Cup in history, 22 years after their last.
