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Nantes Ludovic Blas was crucial from the bench, propelling the team to a draw against European hopefuls Monaco
Substitute Ludovic Blas came off the bench to rescue a point for Nantes in an entertaining 2-2 draw after they had gone 2-0 down against Monaco.
Blas assisted one goal and scored the equaliser as Nantes fought back from two goals down to earn a valuable point in their fight against relegation.
Monaco took what they believed to be a healthy lead after goals from Axel Disasi and Eliot Matazo in the first half, but they were pegged back by two second-half goals that will make the one point earned feel like two points dropped.
How it happened
Chasing a possible UEFA Champions League place next season, Monaco brushed off early Nantes pressure to take the lead after only 21 minutes when Manchester United target Axel Disasi rifled home from a corner kick to make it 1-0 to the visitors.
After Monaco's first goal resulted from a corner, one would think that Nantes would set themselves up better from corner-kick situations for the rest of the game, but that did not happen as they soon conceded from another Le Rocher corner situation less than ten minutes after the first.
This time Belgian midfielder Eliot Matazo bundled home another Ciao Henrique corner kick to give Monaco a 2-0 lead going into the break.
In a classic case of a "game of two halves", Nantes were the better team in the second period, but had to wait until after the hour mark to find a way back into the match by showing that they could be just as good as set pieces as their visitors.
Defender Mostafa Mohamed scored the third goal from a corner kick in the match, this time for Nantes rather than against them, after rising highest to meet a cross from Blas, who had been on the pitch for only six minutes.
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The substitutes would eventually be the heroes for the home side as Blas met a perfectly weighted cross from Quentin Merlin at the far post to draw Nantes level in the 78th minute and ensure that they got a point from the match
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