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The attack awakens Nantes
Led at the break although dominating, Nantes needed a big boost in the second half to come back to a well-organized Toulouse team.
Evann Guessand, Mostafa Mohamed and Moses Simon were the main architects of this comeback of the Canaries.
The three men were decisive with one goal and one assist each.
Guessand perfectly crossed his head to equalize on a cross from Simon (50th).
The first Nantes scorer then passed on Mohamed's goal with a very good cross (55th).
On the last canary goal, Simon takes over the shift in the chest of Mohamed (61st).
Three men involved on three goals.
A nice attacking trio guided and awakened La Beaujoire.
The artist Van den Boomen
On the opener for Téfécé, Dutch midfielder Branco Van den Boomen again made a magnificent assist.
On one of his usual long serves, the young Moroccan Zakaria Aboukhlal perfectly took over from the left to deceive Alban Lafont (15th).
Throughout the game, the best passer in Ligue 2 last season made his creative qualities speak for themselves to provide solid attacking animation.
With 84% of successful passes and 62 balls hit, Van den Boomen was the only regular player on the Toulouse side who tried to calm the Nantes onslaught by effectively playing counterattacks on clean raises.
FLOPS
Nantes' fragile defense
If the Nantes attack was close to perfection in the second half, the defense nevertheless suffered some scares.
Apart from Jean-Charles Castelletto (five interceptions) who held the Yellow House almost alone, Nicolas Pallois repeatedly frightened his teammates as well as the entire Beaujoire stadium with sometimes risky hesitant decisions.
In the first half, when he was not pressed by Toulouse, he gave the ball back to his goalkeeper without checking that Alban Lafont was not on his line.
He almost lobbed the Nantes goalkeeper, forcing the latter to make a diving header for a corner to avoid his defender's own goal.
Pallois also failed to win any duels and committed two fouls.
The left side is not doing much better with an inefficient Quentin Merlin who lost 12 balls,
The lack of reaction from Toulouse
By leading at the break against a Nantes team pushed by Beaujoire, Toulouse thought they had done the hardest part.
Even if it is never easy to get to the Canary Islands, it is clear that the so rapid relaxation of Toulouse hurts: in less than 20 minutes, Montanier's players have conceded three goals, obtaining no opportunity on this period and letting themselves be walked on by the Nantes attacking trio.
The only reaction from Téfécé comes from Fares Chaibi and his center-shooter who crashed into Lafont's bar... in the 71st minute.