NANTES: Nantes will play in Ligue 1 next season after squeezing past Toulouse on away goals in the relegation play-off on Sunday, a positive end to what has been a chaotic season.

Antoine Kombouare’s team lost 1-0 on the night to Toulouse thanks to Vakoun Bayo’s 62nd-minute strike, but keep their top flight status thanks to their 2-1 win in the south west of France on Thursday.

It brings to an end a turbulent season for Nantes in which they had three coaches, including a disastrous and short-lived spell under reviled former France coach Raymond Domenech.

Fans greeted Domenech’s arrival at his first training session in late December with clown music in one of the most memorable moments of the season, and things did not improve much before his sacking in mid-February without a single win under his belt.

A run of four wins from their final five league games enabled Kombouare to keep Nantes out of the automatic relegation places and then beat Toulouse, who stay in Ligue 2. There was little appetite to celebrate among fans however, who largely shunned a chance to congratulate the players in sign of protest against deeply unpopular club president Waldemar Kita.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2021