Tigers held by Les Canaris but stay unbeaten ahead of new campaign

BACK OF THE NET: Ozan Tufan celebrates after scoring the opener against FC Nantes. Pictures courtesy of Hull City

Hull City 1 - 1 FC Nantes

Pre-season Friendly

MKM Stadium

Attendance: 4,893

By Jack Harrison

Hull City maintained their unbeaten record in pre-season with a 1-1 draw against French Ligue 1 side Nantes.

Liam Rosenior’s men were looking to bounce back from a disappointing 1-1 draw at Scunthorpe on Tuesday with a positive performance ahead of the new campaign.

The Tigers lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, sporting the new amber away strip for the first time, and they started well, looking comfortable in possession as they built patiently from the back.

The first sight at goal came in the eighth minute when Liam Delap won a corner which resulted in a looping header from Jacob Greaves, which was cleared from the goalmouth by a Nantes defender.

Shortly afterwards, the visitors began to grow into the game and Florent Mollet went down in the penalty area twice within a minute, but the referee dismissed both of his weak penalty claims.

After quarter of an hour, the French outfit had learned how to effectively disrupt City’s attempts to build play from short goal-kicks. The Tigers’ defenders and central midfielders were struggling with the high, man-to-man press, leading to a few uneasy moments on the edge of their own penalty area.

Another uncomfortable moment came in the 17th minute when a hard tackle on Delap led to a collective wince from everyone inside the MKM Stadium. The crunching collision seemed to echo around the ground and the Manchester City loanee stayed down for a few moments, but to the relief of fans and manager soon recovered.

Just like their opponents, City were also pressing high in the hunt for turnovers in dangerous areas – one of which fell to youngster Harry Vaughan in the 24th minute, but he failed to get his shot away after bursting into the penalty area.

The best chance of the first half fell to Pierre Arstouy’s side just two minutes later. After some pinball in the penalty area, Samuel Moutoussamy managed to unleash a shot from close range, but Matt Ingram denied him with his feet.

In the next 20 minutes leading up to half-time, there was very little action at either end with both sides cancelling each other out. Ozan Tufan did have a half-chance five minutes before the break, but his weak header was well wide and the sides went in level at half-time.

The second half began in a similar fashion. Even when City found themselves in shooting positions, they failed to pull the trigger.

It took until the 56th minute for the Tigers to test the French Under-21 international Alban Lafont between the sticks for Nantes when Delap unleashed a venomous shot, but the flag went up for offside.

Just four minutes later, City made the breakthrough. Regan Slater received the ball on the right and fired a low ball across the area towards the penalty spot where Tufan was waiting to fire a low, clinical finish beyond Lafont.

The Tigers almost doubled their lead just five minutes later when Lafont parried a corner onto the head of Greaves, but his finish looped over the bar and ended on top of the net.

In the 70th minute, Les Canaris equalised as City were pushing for a second. Delap lost the ball on the edge of the area and in just two passes, Moses Simon found himself free at the back post after the Tigers had committed men forward. The Nigerian international lashed a fierce strike off the underside of the crossbar and into the back of the net to finish off a lethal counterattack.

But just like in the first half, the last 20 minutes saw no real action at either end and the game petered out into a 1-1 draw.

Nantes proved to be the tough test City were looking for as they now embark on a 46-game Championship season.

The Tigers travel to Carrow Road to face the English Canaries, Norwich City, in the season opener next Saturday.