After a week of international break, the “Yellow and Greens” will travel to the Paris region to face FC Fleury 91. Currently 7th in the standings, Nicolas Chabot’s players stand in the way of the Parisians, who are battling Dijon for a playoff spot. The first leg ended in a 0-0 draw at Marcel Saupin. It was a cohesive collective performance from Nantes, but they lacked effectiveness. An offensive aspect that has been lacking this season, but one the team is working hard on.

How is the squad doing after this week-long break?

Nicolas Chabot: We worked well during the break. We continued to correct our mistakes from the match against Dijon. We also consolidated what we did well. We worked on our ability to be more incisive in the last 30 meters; that’s what we lacked to kill the game against Dijon. And that’s what allowed Dijon to punish us.

Did you have any regrets about the first leg against Fleury?

Nicolas Chabot: Perhaps towards the end of the match, because I remember us finishing strong. But they also had chances. We could say that the 0-0 was deserved by neither team. We both could have scored goals. Fleury is playing well right now; they’re fighting for the playoffs. They have a high-quality and experienced squad. Both teams are capable of hurting each other. Like in the first leg, there will be chances on both sides. The team that is more effective will win. It will be a great battle.

The ambition was to finish in the top half of the table. That looks complicated now, given the schedule…

Nicolas Chabot: Mathematically, it’s going to be very difficult. We’re only going to play teams that, on paper, are better than us. Even if we travel to try and pick up points against these teams, it remains very tough. I think we can do part of the job this weekend, but honestly, we should have done it earlier. But we simply didn’t. We haven’t been able to cross that threshold to bring back 3 points. We’ve too often brought back 1 point; it didn’t come down to much, but we ended up taking points one by one. Naturally, it’s harder to get into the first half of the table. With the gaps now between us and Fleury and Montpellier, it will be very hard to catch up. I think if we manage to stabilize in seventh place, that would already be very good for a first season.