AS Saint-Étienne has the opportunity to put pressure on its competitors to maintain. The Greens face Lille this Friday at the opening of the 28th day of Ligue 1 with the ambition not to return empty-handed and to continue their good series. Apart from the defeat on the lawn of Paris Saint-Germain (3-1), ASSE remains on four wins and a draw in the league. She also showed, by winning in Angers and Clermont, that she knew how to travel well in 2022. To be confirmed this evening at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve-d’Ascq.
The declaration: “The Greens must be respected”
Having taken 13 out of 18 points in the last six games, ASSE no longer has anything to do with this team which was chaining poor performances a few weeks ago. A metamorphosis that has not escaped his opponents who fear this new Stéphanoise dynamic. The Greens are once again scary. This is not to displease the Saint-Etienne coach Pascal Dupraz: “AS Saint-Étienne is a club that must be respected. Respect is earned on the green rectangle. Me, I don’t really like being teased or being ridiculous. If only the opponents could be scared to the point of not coming (laughs)“.
The player to watch: Falaye Sacko, the good pickaxe
Elected player of the month for February by supporters on the club’s official website (40% of the votes, ahead of Romain Hamouma and Wahbi Khazri) Falaye Sacko managed a quick adaptation to the Greens. Arrived in the last minutes of the winter transfer window, the Malian is already an indisputable holder of the workforce of Pascal Dupraz. In the absence of Eliaquim Mangala (suspended) in Lille, he should still be aligned in central defense. Unless Pascal Dupraz decides to align it on the right side in a four-man defense.
The stat: a 29-year drought in the North
The lands of the Dogues do not succeed at AS Saint-Étienne. It’s been 29 years since the Greens won away from home against Lille. Our partner Evect reminds us that we have to go back to September 18, 1993 to find traces of a Saint-Etienne victory in Lille. “The men of Jacques Santini and Jean-Michel Larqué new sporting director had won (2-0) against Dogues who still had not won after eight days“.
The composition France Bleu: Moukoudi will replace Mangala suspended
Bernardoni – Thioub, Sacko, Moukoudi, Nadé, Kolodziejczak – Camara, Gourna – Boudebouz – Khazri, Bouanga