At the Vélodrome stadium in the southern city of Marseille, the Focenses dominated the game and created several scoring opportunities, frustrated by the posts or the visiting goalkeeper, Dimitry Bertaud, until the Polish substitute Arkadiusz Milik opened the scoring in the 74th minute.
When Montpellier seemed sentenced, an oversight by the local defense was taken advantage of by the Congolese Béni Makouana to equalize the actions in the 80th minute and send the match to life or death penalties, which favored Marseille 5-4.
The biggest surprise of Saturday’s round of 16 match was the amateur team FC Versailles 78, from the fourth division in the French football system, by defeating Ligue2 leader Toulouse 1-0, with a goal by Kapitbafan Djoco in the 79th minute, against an opponent numerically disadvantaged since the first half.
In this way, Versailles became the only amateur club present in the quarterfinals of the tournament by direct elimination.
Also unexpected was the elimination of Ligue1 contenders Reims by second-tier Bastia on penalties, following a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes of regulation.
In today’s other game, Amiens eliminated AS Nacy Lorraine from the Coupe de France 2-0, neither of them playing at the highest level of French football.
Marseille, Versailles, Bastia and Amiens joined Nantes in the quarterfinals, winner of the Stade Brestois last night.
Lens and Monaco meet tomorrow and Saint-Etienne visit fourth-tier Bergerac Périgord, with the round of 16 closing on Monday with the highly anticipated clash between defending champions PSG and Nice.
gas/wmr
