It’s now or never for the footballers of Stade Lavallois. The moment to find out what Tango has in their stomach. Win or die, hope or give up, dream or give in, whatever the maxim. If a draw would not be a bad operation in Caen, a defeat for Stade Lavallois would reduce its hopes of participating in the play-offs for promotion to Ligue 1 to almost nothing.
Remember that Laval is three points behind Paris FC, fifth. “And we have a deficit in goal difference, so we can consider that we are four points behind” Olivier Frapolli even said Wednesday at a press conference. “We are a little more in the role of the hunter than the hunted and we have a little less calculation to do, obviously. Our idea is to have the last match of the season [à Guingamp, ndlr] with stakes. We know that this involves taking points in the next two matches” declares the coach.
No more calculations to do
The success against Bordeaux last week (1-0) was good for Tango’s morale. Even if the temptation is great to look at the standings at the dawn of the last three games of the regular season, several players, including defender Yohan Tavares, believe that we should not calculate, but simply play and win.
“The important thing is to take the matches one after the other. When we start to make calculations, we perhaps forget the main thing a little, which is victory. I don’t think it’s a good idea to look at the rankings too much.. Ligue 2 has already proven to us that it is capable of anything, in the sense that everyone is capable of winning against everyone.“.
Returning from injury against Auxerre (0-4) a week ago, the captain of the Stade Lavallois defense should continue against Caen. Very good news, because the absence of Yohan Tavares more or less coincides with the crossing of the Mayennais desert (six matches without a victory between March and April).
Contain the top scorer in Ligue 2
The former Trojan, aged 36, will have his work cut out for him this Friday. The player will have to watch like milk on the fire a certain Alexandre Mendy, the Caen striker and top scorer in Ligue 2 this season (20 goals). “This is also what makes our profession beautiful. I prefer to play against players like that rather than players who are a little less quality. I think this kind of duel awakens me as a player. We know that we have to be focused all the time, on the lookout for each situation and that’s what makes the beauty of our job too. Our team of analysts sends us videos, we have short clips that summarize the players in a few minutes. This allows us to immerse ourselves in the match” develops Yohan Tavares.
The group
►► Caen-Laval can be experienced in full on France Bleu Mayenne from 7:45 p.m. with Franck Gauteur, Martin Cotta, Marine Clette and our consultant Ulrich Le Pen.
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