AS Saint-Etienne returns to the Coupe de France, this Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.), 9 months to the day after the calamitous elimination in the round of 16, last January against Bergerac, a National 2 club. This time, no surprise, it’s a Ligue 2 club that stands in front of the Greens, at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium, Rodez, 17th in the championship, one point ahead of the Saint-Etienne footballers. After his victory last weekend in Amiens
ASSE wants to take advantage of this entry into the running in the Coupe de France to confirm this success and build confidence before the truce of the World Cup from November 12, just after a reunion between the two clubs. , in the league this time.
The Stéphanois coach says it quite clearly: the Coupe de France is not an objective but this match is important to maintain a good dynamic. So how to present the match to the players and get the best out of this confrontation? “I’m going to tell them that we have to stay on the state of mind of the last game and some others before” explains Laurent Batllès. “It’s important to surf on that. Today we have to be able to impose our game against any team”.
A 100% Loire derby in the 8th round?
If the Greens pass, they will offer the Loire a nice football party in the next round against an amateur club from the department because the winner of the match between Roche-St-Genest and Montbrison-Savigneux would have the honor of facing the ASSE in the 8th round. So inevitably the pressure rises and we were kindly rooming in 100% Sainté on Thursday evening between the president of Montbrison-Savigneux Gérard Arnaud and that of Roche-St-Genest Stéphane Kunz.
However, for the celebration of football in the Loire to take place, there is only one condition: that AS Saint-Etienne fulfills its part of the contract and beats Rodez in the Cauldron. So be careful not to put the cart before the horse for club-trained Saint-Etienne midfielder Louis Mouton: “It would be a great match but he is not in the 7th round. He may be in the 8th. First there is Rodez and if we lose this weekend there will be none of that”.
And if everything wants to smile on Loire football, the question would arise of where this 100% local French cup match would be played because it is scheduled for the weekend of November 20, during the World Cup break, at a time when the Geoffroy Guichard stadium is supposed to undergo some work.