TFC – Reims: “When you don’t score, that’s what the supporters remember”… How Zakaria Aboukhlal, hero of the match, turned the Stadium audience on its head

From one smile to another. From zero to hero. The start of Zakaria Aboukhlal's season looks like a real emotional elevator. A month ago, on September 29 against Lyon, the Moroccan was taken aback by part of the Stadium public, accusing him of his too low performance when he came into play. To the whistles, the winger responded with a smile full of irony, complete with a thumbs up and applause.

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This Sunday, November 3, against Reims, this time the applause was loud from the spectators. And the winger's happy face was to be taken at face value. By delivering his entire team with a nice stung ball for a difficult goal to score (84th), Zakaria Aboukhlal recorded his reconciliation with the Violets public to his greatest happiness. “A big sigh of relief,” admitted Carles Martinez Novell, happy to see his team finally manage to win two games in a row this season.

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If the entire workforce produced a solid copy, the TFC believed for a long time to reproduce a scenario already well established in recent weeks: playing coherently, creating opportunities and not conceding too many, without managing to make it happen. But Toulouse was able to show perseverance, like its Sunday scorer, who could have opened the scoring with a header following a ball placed by Djibril Sidibé just before the break (45 + 1). “I did my job, but after that it’s everyone’s own job,” the defender laughed afterwards, before mimicking the head in front of Zakaria Aboukhlal, as if to better humor him, while his friend arrived to introduce himself in the mixed zone .

A joyful skit that contrasts with the tension that accompanied the Toulouse residents throughout the afternoon. Because let's not forget that a few minutes after the outpouring of joy, the Japanese Keito Nakamura almost caused a huge blow to the air conditioning throughout the Stadium by finding the crossbar with his head (81st). It would have been cruel, but Reims was not unworthy by showing up in the Pink City with several absentees (Buta, Teuma, Munetsi), before failing physically in the last half hour, as Luka Elsner admitted to time of debrief.

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“My way of playing hasn’t changed, it’s just that at the moment I’m finding the net.”

Nothing to move Zakaria Aboukhlal, who has now scored four goals in the last four matches, including a double in Montpellier last week. Or how to turn the page on the months of struggle after his serious knee injury and his difficulties in returning to the forefront since last spring. “I always kept my confidence,” says No. 7, “because I managed to get the chances. My way of playing hasn't changed, it's just that at the moment, I find the path of the nets.” Which is the best way to silence the criticism to which he has obviously not been insensitive: “When you don’t score, that’s what the supporters notice […] I can understand people's frustration. But I think that in general, you always have to be behind the players and support them.”

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“The team loves him, is happy to see him score because we know that he fought a lot to come back and he is a very important boy for us,” praises his coach, aware of the contribution of the one who is currently the best director on the team. Because right now, when Zakaria goes, everything goes to TFC. How far away this Lyon match seems.