Let’s be objective. What are, today, the main reasons for believing in a maintenance FC Metz in Ligue 1? They do not come from the field… The defense has become permeable again for three days, the attack has started to score (a little) but its goals are not decisive and the infirmary, joined by Fali Candé, is still filled.
But in sports, a part of irrational can never be excluded. And if they beat Clermont on Sunday at St-Symphorien, which would only be their second victory of the season at home, the Grenats can come back to within two points of their opponent, 17th at the start of this 32nd day.
Unexpected for a team with a starving total of 23 points, red lantern, worst attack in the championship and worst team at home? “I don’t know if it’s unexpected but I tell myself that maybe… there can be something to dosays Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik, the Messin central defender who experienced the improbable maintenance of Toulouse FC in 2016. Many will say that the shock came from the change of coach, but if the players weren’t receptive, or hadn’t become aware, we could have changed coach twenty times, that wouldn’t have changed anything! It is up to us players to realize that the situation is serious.“
It haunts me. Frederic Antonetti
A final lifeline. And this one, it will be necessary to seize it. Not like last Sunday, in Bordeaux, where FC Metz got into a hole. “Despite all the hazards, injuries or lack of success, I have to put three teams behind adds coach Frédéric Antonetti. I haven’t got there yet. It’s a failure but for now, we’re still alive. We shouldn’t be there. We are there because the others have not been able to take advantage of it. Are we going to take advantage of the fact that others don’t? When fans tell me they can’t sleep all night, I believe them. Me, it haunts me. It’s going to haunt me all my life if we fail.”
Are the players also affected? Yes, assures the coach who refers to the midweek athletic sessions to prove it. They have the club’s future at their fingertips, facing a opponent a little better off, but also in the doldrums, after 5 losses in a row. They have already disappointed a lot. Sunday, it will be double or quits.
Metz – Clermont Foot, live on France Bleu Lorraine, this Sunday, from 2 p.m. with Arthur Blanc, Thomas Lavaud and Gaby Dalvit.