TINO THE FALL GUY AFTER COSTLY PENALTY MISS
ZIMBABWE international striker Tino Kadewere was the fall guy as he missed a second half penalty for relegation-threatened Nantes in their goalless draw at Marshall Munetsi’s Stade de Reims in a French Ligue 1 clash on Saturday.
Consequently, Kadewere was given the lowest rating of 2.9 out of 10 with only three others getting a rating of less than 5 — Pedro Chirivella (4.3), Jean-Kevin Duverne (4.6) and Moussa Sissoko (4.9)
A penalty was awarded in the 69th minute when Reims’ Thérence Koudou, who was yellow-carded, committed a foul in the penalty area.
Kadewere took responsibility but his right footed shot was saved by Reims goalkeeper Yehvann Diouf.
His first notable involvement came after 18 minutes when his header from the right side of the six-yard box was close, but narrowly missed the target to the right following a corner from Florent Mollet.
Kadewere was making his fourth appearance for Nantes after his loan move from Olympique Lyon early this month.
He marked his debut with a second half brace as Nantes beat lowly Pau 4-1 in a Coupe de France match but has failed to find the target in the three matches afterwards against Clermont (1-2), Laval (0-1) and Reims (0-0).
Nantes are 13th in the 18-team league with 19 points from 19 matches, just six points above bottom-placed Lorient and just three points ahead of Kadewere’s parent club Lyon, who occupy the final relegation slot.
Worryingly, Nantes have not won a league game since last year when they beat Nice 1-0 on December 2, a run of four defeats and a draw. The 14 points dropped in the last five league matches have left Nantes in serious relegation trouble.
In all, they have five wins, four draws and 10 losses while scoring just 20 goals in 19 matches and conceding 30.
Munetsi returned from a long injury lay-off and was introduced in the 59th minute as a replacement for Amine Salama. Munetsi was yellow carded in the 82nd minute for rough play and conceded another foul two minutes later but it was not a bad one to warrant a second yellow card, allowing him to see off the game.