After a very complicated season where the threat of relegation hovered from start to finish, the Greens are playing their last card this Sunday evening to stay in Ligue 1. Play-off return match against AJ Auxerre, at 7 p.m. in the Cauldron.
It will a priori be the last game on the bench of the Greens for coach Pascal Dupraz, recruited as a firefighter last December. The Savoyard has always insisted that he believed in maintaining ASSE, and he claims to have not lost his conviction. “I’m extremely determined, and I believe there has to be another qualifier than extremely, even stronger. And I know the players are going to be extremely determined.”
And it will take determination to rise to the challenge. Thursday evening in the first leg, the Saint-Etienne conceded a draw one everywhere. If they want to ensure their maintenance, they must at all costs avoid taking a goal, which would count double outside for the opponents of Icaun. These calculations have not escaped Eliachim Mangala, but the defender does not want to be lulled by the prospect of an easy draw. “What is going to be important is going to be to defend well, but also not to play for zero zero, you will also have to attack because in a match when you start defending too much, at some point you suffer too much, and the goal it’s not to suffer, it’s to be smart in what we’re going to do.”
The Greens can in any case count on the support of the Cauldron. Geoffroy-Guichard will be sold out this Sunday evening, with 32,000 people expected.