L’Equipe: White Castle’s Season Will Be A Complete Failure If They Are Eliminated From The UEFA Europa League; Fans Continue To Protest Against BlueCo

Hupu reported on May 07 that the French media L’Equipe wrote a column on Strasbourg’s UEFA Europa League.

On Monday, 20-year-old Mike Penders put his gloves tightly over his head before walking alongside his teammates on the practice field to cushion the blow. The Strasbourg goalkeeper, like Valentin Barco, who is one year older than him, has just received an invitation from Frank Signorino, representative of the French Union of Professional Football Players (UNFP), to attend the awards ceremony on May 11.

The first candidate is a goalkeeper from Belgium, who is among the candidates for the best goalkeeper in the 2025-2026 season; the other midfielder from Argentina has successfully entered the candidate list for the best young player award.

Strasbourg has ushered in the moment of glory and trophies. However, before knowing the results of the peer vote, the teammates of Balco and Penders must compete with the Spanish team Rayo Vallecano for a ticket to the UEFA Champions League final on Thursday night (that is, at 9 o'clock).

Strasbourg want to ensure a game that has been hailed as "the greatest game in the history of Strasbourg" by English coach Gary O'Neill. They are eager for the game to be staged like this, that is, to reverse the 0-1 score in the first leg and advance to the first European Champions League final in the glorious history of the Strasbourg club.

In order to unite the many positive energies, the Strasbourg club launched an invigorating national mobilization call, "Alsace is with us!", which urged the entire region to support the players, overcome the unfavorable situation, and lead them to Leipzig, where the final will be held on May 27. And it's having an effect. Starting from Plobusheim and continuing to Mittelhausbergen, passing through Bishheim and Hangenbitten, slogans like "Go Strasbourg!" flash on countless billboards in Alsace's 880 towns and villages.

The current status of the Strasbourg player is unclear.

Now, all they need to do is to at least ignite some excitement at the Menau Stadium on Thursday night. To achieve this, Strasbourg will pin its hopes on the return of right back Guerra Douai and midfielder Valentin Barco.

However, it is still unknown whether Douai, who has been infected with the virus before and has lost six kilograms in weight, can start.

In fact, the situation of Strasbourg's players is the biggest doubt in its 50th game of the season. After showing outstanding momentum at the beginning, in the first round of the semi-finals last Thursday, as the second half continued to advance, it seemed to gradually lose its vitality.

This observation further strengthened the determination of head coach O'Neal. With the support of the management, he made the decision to continue to rotate the main players. Even if this means that the team's previously amazing European campaign, which started with a stunning victory against Mainz in the last round (April 16, 0-2, 4-0), may be cast a shadow.

At the Menau Stadium, they lost to loyal fans one after another, including the French Cup semi-final loss to Nice. This happened three times in a row. After that, Strasbourg, who played as a reserve team, almost completely ruined their chance of retaining European qualification through the league. Atletico is currently ranked eighth in Ligue 1. Their only goal at the moment is to win the UEFA Champions League and thereby ensure a successful season. Otherwise, you will only face failure.

The team plans to create a giant banner.

This is a bold and risky gamble, but it might pay off. Strasbourg cannot dwell on the past, but must rely on some basic facts: compared with the previous round against Mainz, the gap they have to overcome is smaller.

The opponent was also weaker. Rayo Vallecano, nicknamed "Lightning", and the red diagonal stripes on their jerseys symbolize their strength. They played at home in Vallecas and suffered a serious blow when they challenged AEK Athens in the second leg of the quarter-finals. The score in the first leg was 3-0 and the score in the second leg was 1-3.

Tonight, they will receive support from 1,600 fans and all 31,500 tickets have been sold out. Rayo Vallecano seems to have a special fondness for the football culture of the past. Some fans even took the players' Boeing 737 special planes to watch the games, as did media reporters.

Those extreme fans in Strasbourg have not taken even a step back. The protests against BlueCo will not stop here and will continue uninterrupted. Not only that, they also unfurled a huge banner, which presented a scene as grand and spectacular as the glorious and radiant Alsace Blues they dreamed of when they lifted the trophy.