Football: Avenir Foot Lozère fell into the trap of the Coupe de France, the Mendois eliminated

L’aventure Coupe de France s’arrête au troisième tour pour l’AFL. DR – DR

Avenir Foot Lozère (R1) saw its journey in the Coupe de France end in the third round on Saturday, September 14, 2024 in Fenouillet (R3) with a score of 2 to 2, 9-8 on penalties.

Every year, the favorites hope not to be knocked out by teams that play in lower divisions, but the magic of the Coupe de France continues to work. And the AFL was on the wrong side of history Saturday night in Fenouillet.

2 to 0 for the AFL

With two divisions of difference, the Lozériens wanted to prove their status as favourites but the first half showed that nothing is ever a given in the Coupe de France. The two teams neutralised each other until the 40th minute, the moment chosen by the AFL to open the scoring. After a corner played by two, Barbut sent a good cross to Diallo who scored with a header.

Buoyed by this opening of the score just before returning to the locker room, the yellow and blue will start the second half well. Launched by Camisullis, Bourguet finds Barbut who quickly follows up to give his team a two-goal lead (0-2, 47th).

But the Toulouse suburban players did not give up and quickly got back into the game. On a long free kick, Daunis, with a header, got ahead of Magurno and reduced the gap for the locals (1-2, 54th). Zanina's players then had several opportunities to break away but without success. Still under threat of a comeback, they finally saw the Regional 3 players come back into the game in added time. After a good one – two, Michielan equalizes for Fenouillet (2-2, 92nd).

Fatal penalty shootouts

During the penalty shootout, Magurno repels the first local attempt, without it benefiting his team. The Mendois will nevertheless have two match points in this penalty shootout but without concluding! Finally, after a third missed, the AFL loses 9-8 in this fateful session…

The journey in the Coupe de France therefore ends in the third round. We will have to remobilize for the championship as the AFL coach explains: “It is frustrating and infuriating to lose in this way. It is up to us to quickly recover from this disappointment to prepare well for the first home match against Fabrègues and improve on our victory in Béziers.“

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