FC Nantes have suffered humiliation on their home turf at La Beaujoire after conceding three goals to their bitter Britanny rivals Rennes this Saturday afternoon. After reaching the first half unscathed, Pedro Chirivella and his relegation-battling teammates collapsed after the hour mark, shipping three efforts from Arnaud Kalimuendo, Benjamin Bourigeaud from the spot and Amine Gouiri in injury time. Les Canaris were outplayed in every area of the pitch and the Spaniard was in no mood at the final whistle.
“That’s disgraceful. The second half we played… we were not up to it”, laments Pedro Chirivella to Ligue 1 broadcaster Amazon Prime Video. “We need to talk about it between us, about what happened in the second half. That was not normal. I apologize to all the fans who came to support us. I’m sorry, but that’s shit. We played shit.”
The former Liverpool man went on to say he could not explain how Nantes went from being relatively in control of Rennes in the first half to being completely leaky and careless in the second half. “Maybe we tired ourselves. But every time we concede, it looks like we stop playing, and that’s not the first occurrence. I’m speechless.”
Nantes, who sit 14th in the table, have lost their last nine games at home, including their last eight league outings. Pedro Chirivella lamented his side’s abysmal home form. “That’s a disgrace. We’re not up to what FC Nantes stand for and not up to that Beaujoire stadium.” The Spaniard added that Nantes only have one home Ligue 1 game until the end of the season, against Champions League hopefuls Lille OSC. “I’m saying it every time: we’ll do our best to win it, but if we keep playing like this, we won’t win another game for five to six seasons. We need to wake up for the last one.”
GFFN | Bastien Cheval