“The players must understand that every minute, we are playing our skin in Ligue 1.” The tone is set on the eve of ASSE’s trip to Angers on Wednesday 26 January. For this meeting of the 20th day of the championship, postponed due to Covid cases among the Angevins, coach Pascal Dupraz sets his objectives: “we will have to be much better than we were against Olympique Lyonnais”.
In all areas of the game, the Stéphanois “disappointed” their coach, this Friday, January 21, during the derby in Lyon. Pascal Dupraz still believes in maintaining, his goal for the season. And his three defeats since he arrived in Saint-Étienne are not a failure, on the contrary, “it is a chance ! he argues. You can’t follow me. [Rire] It would have been too easy if we had directly caught up with our opponents.” ASSE is still five points behind the penultimate: Bordeaux and Lorient.
The positives: the Saint-Etienne workforce is regaining some color: Ryad Boudebouz has recovered from the Covid and Denis Bouanga has returned from the CAN after the defeat of Gabon.