Nantes pay tribute to missing Emiliano Sala as clash with Saint-Etienne is stopped in the ninth minute for applause

Nantes paid an emotional tribute to Emiliano Sala before and during their league game with Saint-Etienne on Wednesday evening.

It was Nantes’ first match since the Argentine striker went missing on January 21 when the plane flying him to Cardiff to complete his £15million move disappeared over the English Channel.

A huge centre-circle mural of Sala was displayed before his name was spelled out by supporters using yellow and green cards in the stands.

Outside the Stade de la Beaujoire, prior to kick-off, fans laid shirts and flowers, while candles were also lit.

Players wore white t-shirts with Sala’s face on the front which read ‘We love you Emi’ on the back during the warm-up, while they each had his name on the back of their match shirt.

The referee then paused the match in the ninth minute – Sala’s Nantes shirt number – as both sets of players and fans showed their appreciation in the emotional scenes that reduced Nantes manager Vahid Halilhodzic to tears.

While football was clearly secondary on such a reflective night, both sides had a man sent off before Nantes’s Waris Majeed cancelled out Remy Cabella’s opener as the match ended 1-1.

Arsenal also paid tribute to the striker, by including him in the away squad list on the matchday programme for their match against Cardiff.

News emerged on Wednesday, that part of a first seat cushion was discovered on a beach near Surtainville on France’s Cotentin Peninsula, and a second was found in the same area slightly later after an underwater search was conducted for the missing plane.