The AJA could have fallen on the PSG, winner of the last Coupe de France. It will ultimately be the LOSC. For the draw for the 32nd final of the oldest competitions which took place this Monday evening at the Parc des Princes in front of the cameras of Eurosport 2 with the entry into the running of the elite clubs, it is the champion of skicross Ophélie David who unsheathed the ball containing the name of the icaunais club. Who will therefore find themselves facing the defending French L1 champion on the weekend of December 18-19. And it will be on the move, at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, to live fully live, like all AJA matches, on France Bleu Auxerre.
Lille not great in the league but in good shape in the Champions League
The Northerners, coached by Jocelyn Gourvennec, are currently skating in the championship. Due to a bad series of six unsuccessful matches (four draws, two losses), they are 13th in L1, eight points from the podium and five units from the barrage and 18th, Clermont. But paradoxically, the Mastiffs are still in the race to qualify for the round of 16 of the Champions League, before the last day of their group (in Wolfsburg on December 8) in which they occupy first place.
AJA had to eliminate two N3 clubs on the road (4-2 in Limonest and 6-4 in Chambéry) to reach the 32nd finals of this Coupe de France. It remains to be seen whether, as in the two previous meetings in the oldest of competitions, Jean-Marc Furlan will face LOSC. Because this match scheduled for the weekend of December 18-19 is stalled only a few days before the reception of Le Havre on Tuesday December 21, the 19th and last day of the first leg of L2. In the championship, the Auxerrois, currently 3rd, are struggling to compete for the climb. At the same stage last year, the Auxerrois fell on OM (2-0 defeat) to Abbé-Deschamps.
A match that will necessarily be special for Francis Graille. The former icaunais leader, president of the AJA from 2017 to 2021 – and still a member of the club’s board of directors, also chaired the LOSC between 1999 and 2002. Among the players who made the two teams happy , we will mention in particular Benoît Pedretti (current coach of Nancy in L2), spent in Yonne from 2006 to 2011 before joining the northern team, which he will leave in 2013.