Toulouse dethrones Nantes and wins the French Cup

Toulouse was proclaimed champion of the French Cup with a 5-1 win over the defending champions, Nantes, this Saturday in a final at the Parisian Stade de France also marked by the presence in the box of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.

The controversial pension reform, which has been agitating the political and social climate in France for weeks, threatened to be invited to this sporting event, but in the end football took center stage, in a match that hardly had a history due to the great superiority since the principle of Toulouse, which at the break they already dominated 4-0, with doubles for Logan Costa and Thijs Dallinga.

Thanks to his victory, Toulouse fans were able to celebrate their first title in 66 years, after the success in the 1957 French Cup, which only the oldest remember. This title is also the subject of some controversy since the club considers it its own, while the French Football Federation (FFF) officially attributes it to another “Toulouse FC”, a club that disappeared in 1967 before being refounded in 1970.

Lifting the ‘Coupe’ trophy also means for Toulouse, currently twelfth in the French league, an added prize: a ticket to play the next Europa League.

However, that possibility still needs to be confirmed because shares the same owners as AC Milan and the UEFA regulation, in its article 5 on “timeshare of clubs”, establishes that two clubs owned by the same shareholder cannot participate at the same time in European competitions. If there could only be one, AC Milan would have priority according to the continental organization’s criteria.

Nantes, champion of the last French Cup, could not revalidate his crown and now they will have to focus their efforts on staying in Ligue 1, where they are sixteenth, with the same points as the first team in the relegation zone, Brest (17th), which they visit on Wednesday at the end of the 33rd working day.

In this Saturday’s game, Toulouse left everything on track from the start, with a double of headed goals by Cape Verdean international Logan Costa (minutes 4 and 10), first from a corner kick launched by Branco Van den Boomen and then into the small area with the assistance of Stijn Spierings.

Far from speculating on that advantage, Toulouse continued hungry and in minute 23 came the third, when the Chilean Gabriel Suazo gave the decisive pass to Thijs Dallinga, who in a face-to-face with the rival goalkeeper raised the just to beat him.

Dallinga scored again at 31pushing at will after finding a ball parried by goalkeeper Alban Lafont after a first attempt by Farès Chaibi.

In the second halfNantes cut it short in the 75th minute with a penalty transformed by Ludovic Blas, but Toulouse had the last word by signing the final 5-1, with a shot from the edge of the area by Zakaria Aboukhlal in minute 79.

Contrary to what is usual and by decision of the prefecture in view of the risk of an invasion of the pitch, it was decided that the awarding of trophies would take place in the stands and not in the center of the field of play.

Macron presided over the box of authorities and he had already gone down to the dressing room corridors of the Stade de France to greet the teams. In previous years, the President of the Republic used to perform this formal greeting on the lawn.

Several unions had distributed red cards and whistles to the spectators around the stadium to help them show their rejection of the pension reform.