Nantes playing for pride

Left with just their pride to play for in the UEFA Champions League after their 5-1 defeat by Manchester United FC, FC Nantes Atlantique could be excused for focussing on Le Championnat, where their future is at risk, rather than Wednesday’s Group A match at home Boavista FC.

Aggressive performance
In such situations, however, teams sometimes give of their best and Angel Marcos, the Nantes head coach, is appealing to his players, somewhat paradoxically, to regain their composure with a more aggressive performance than of late.

No future
Marcos warns their visitors to the Stade de la Beaujoire that it would be a mistake to expect Nantes to roll over in this their last home game in the Champions League, just because they have no future in this season’s tournament. The French club are the only team in the entire competition with not even a mathematical chance of progressing.

'Regain self-esteem'
"Don’t believe that we won’t do everything to win," he said. "A victory in front of our fans would be the best way to redeem ourselves after the defeat against Manchester United and our goalless draw against [FC] Sochaux-Montbéliard. The game against Boavista will enable us to focus on our own game and regain self-esteem."

Domestic struggle
That said, there is much evidence that Nantes are gearing themselves up for the struggle which lies ahead in the French league if they are to preserve their first division status. Nantes are in 14th position only three points clear of the drop zone. As a result, the left-sided midfielder Sylvain Armand, who is a key player in the Nantes side, will be rested for the testing games that lie ahead in Le Championnat.

'Fabbri missing'
Marcos is also taking the unprecedented decision this season to omit central defender Nestor Fabbri from his starting line-up; Fabbri has not missed a game this season at home or in Europe. His place is likely to go to Nicolas Gillet. Also absent is Stéphane Ziani, although he is suffering from a groin injury. However, defender Mario Yepes is available after suspension. "Almost half the team has not been fully fit since the illness we caught in Manchester," said Marcos. Several of the players and some of the coaching staff contracted rhinopharyngitis in Manchester and even after a week’s rest were not at their best when they played out a goalless draw at home to Sochaux.

Sweet music
This should all be sweet music to the ears of Jaime Pacheco, the Boavista head coach, whose side must win this game if they are to have any hope of reaching the quarter-finals. So far, Boavista have failed to win any of their eight away games in the competition and have not even managed a single clean sheet. In the reverse fixture, Boavista emerged as home winners by virtue of a single goal.

Away success
Since their defeat to FC Bayern München a fortnight ago, Boavista have taken four points from two games. A goalless home draw against Vitória Guimarães was followed by a 2-0 away win - their fifth consecutive away success - at SC Braga which strengthened their hopes of retaining the Portuguese title. They are one point behind Sporting Clube de Portugal on the same number of games.