After Belfort on Tuesday, his competitor in National 2 (4th division) Epinal awakened the magic of the Coupe de France, Wednesday January 29, by eliminating Lille (2-1), a severe mishap for the seventh in Ligue 1 that has not known Paris SG, qualified in the quarterfinals after his victory at Pau (2-0), nor Marseille who fell from Strasbourg (3-1).
Lovers of Epinal and those of Belfort, who fell from Montpellier on Tuesday on penalties, will therefore act as an intruder in the next round among the Ligue 1 teams such as Rennes, Saint-Etienne, Dijon, Marseille and even Paris. Nice and Lyon will compete for the last ticket on Thursday (8:55 p.m.).
In the Vosges, Lille coach Christophe Galtier had almost aligned his typical team, a winning formula from the start thanks to a new creation by Loïc Rémy (8e). But Epinal, who had brought out the Reunionese from JS Saint-Pierroise in the previous round, did not give up. And his courage was rewarded in the second half with a double from Jean-Philippe Krasso (54e, 61e) in front of Mike Maignan, the French international goalkeeper.
Paredes, captain and goalscorer
In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, PSG did not fall into the trap of Pau (National, 3rd division), the team that had surprised Bordeaux in the previous round. Without Neymar left to rest, with Angel Di Maria and Kylian Mbappé kept on the bench, the Parisians have entrusted the keys of the game to Leandro Paredes, the 25-year-old defensive midfielder who arrived last winter from Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Designated captain of the evening, the Argentinian scored his first goal with the Paris jersey (25e), taking from the left a balloon stored from the chest by Mauro Icardi. He also initiated the 2-0 goal, scored by Pablo Sarabia (53e).
The only bad news for Thomas Tuchel: the PSG coach lost his young defender Colin Dagba, injured a knee when tackling and limped off the field limping and grimacing in pain.
Marseille finds the key
At the Vélodrome in the evening, Olympique de Marseille did not break twice against the same wall, beating Strasbourg (3-1) four days after coming up against Angers in Ligue 1 (0-0).
A goal by Bouna Sarr (32e) and a penalty from Dimitri Payet (43e) allowed OM to push the door of the quarter-finals. Marseille's number 10 took a personal revenge. Last season against the same opponent, in the League Cup, he had missed two penalties against Bingourou Kamara, one in regular time, one during the series of shots on goal, and Racing had won (1-1, 4-2 tab).
We had to defend Wednesday evening in turn once the Racing came back by Benjamin Corgnet (59e), but the dolphin of Paris SG in the championship deserved his victory, confirmed by a goal by Boubacar Kamara on a last counter (90 + 5).
Everything was not perfect, but the team of André Villas-Boas found, without his striker Dario Benedetto, spared for his painful Achilles tendon, the solutions that had escaped him the previous weekend against the Angevins .
OM are returning to their virtuous statistics: in their last thirteen matches, they have won eleven, including one on penalties (Granville, 1-1, 4-2 tab) and can always dream of a cup they hasn't raised since 1989.
