the essential
Tenth in Ligue 1, TFC is still in a position to qualify for a European competition at the end of the season. An equation with many unknowns, but which will already involve a victory this Friday, May 3 against Montpellier (7 p.m.). Does the locker room still believe in it?
Officially maintained since Sunday and their victory in Lorient (2-1), the TFC still has enough to feed its dream machine during the last three matches of the season. However improbable it may seem, the Violets can, from their 10th place (out of 18), still aim for Europe. The scenario is hypothetical, convoluted but not impossible, especially not for a team that has made its culture incredible in recent seasons.
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In the locker room, the possibility was not ruled out, especially not after a flamboyant second part of the season during which only three teams (Lille, Lyon and Paris) took more points than Toulouse: “We all have dreams and ambition. We made European qualification difficult with our poor results in the first part of the season, but everything remains possible,” said defender Rasmus Nicolaisen. “There is a small chance, we will hold on to it until the end. »
The TFC must hope for missteps from its competitors
Barrage at the winter break, after winning only two matches out of 17, the TFC won five times as many in 14 days in the return phase; enough to stay in the race but not to have the luxury of being able to decide your destiny alone. To hope to compete in a second consecutive European Cup, which has only happened once in its history (the UEFA Cup in 1986-1987 and 1987-1988), the Haut-Garonne club will already have to be flawless or almost until the end – which is no small thing knowing that PSG and Brest are still on the program – and above all wait for its competitors to go off the road. “You can win everything and not be European,” summarizes Carles Martinez Novell.
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The matter will depend a lot on the end of Lyon’s season: if OL win the Coupe de France against Paris on May 25, seventh place in Ligue 1 will qualify for the Europa Conference League, provided that Les Gones finish in the first six (a victory for PSG in the Coupe de France would also make 7th place qualifying). It will also be necessary to monitor OM, who in the event of a final victory in the Europa League would be directly qualified for the next Champions League.
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“That’s a lot of guesswork,” Martinez Novell emphasizes, but one is more important than the others: “We have to win matches. Are we going to take nine points? Maybe, and in that case we will be close to Europe. If we only take three, it won’t be enough. Let’s start by beating Montpellier. »
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Faced with Pailladins who have perked up in recent weeks, with only one defeat in eight games (4V, 3N), the Violets will probably not have an easy task in a Stadium where they have been less successful than away this season ( 4th team away, only 14th at home). But this time there will be, in addition to relative “local” supremacy, a lot at stake for the TFC in this poster which has often been rich in goals in recent years: “I am a very competitive person” explains Carles Martinez Novell . “So yes, when I think of Europe I say to myself, wow, imagine! » We’re not there yet, but let’s imagine anyway.
