As in the National 2 championship on August 23, like last season too, Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Malo parted with a goalless draw after an 8e Coupe de France tour, which has never reached the summits.
But this time, a winner was needed. And at the end of a series of penalties, it was the Briochins who qualified (5-4) for the 32e final of the event.
Guillaume Allanou (coach of Saint-Brieuc) : “We had a game plan to bother them and we really bothered them. On a tactical level, we had worked on things, particularly on their ball releases.
The boys were intelligent, generous, the entrants made their contribution. We showed a lot of solidarity and they didn't have a lot of chances either. It's a big team, which is scheduled for the National and even if we are in the same division, it's still a performance. I don't know if we can call it an achievement but we had a great performance.
It's a team that when it scores it becomes difficult to come back from the score. We are warned with them, a third 0-0 in a row, it is indicative of their defensive solidity and it was not insignificant that we arrived at penalties.
When we found ourselves with ten, we were lucky that there was quickly a second red, which rebalanced the relationship, otherwise it would have been more complicated. But I am convinced that even with ten of us we would have bothered them. »
“This is the third time we’ve lost on penalties…”
Gwen Corbin (coach of Saint-Malo) : “After Guingamp and Caen, this is the third time we have lost on penalties, it's starting to be a little hard to accept and hard to swallow, that's why we wanted to avoid penalties.
Afterwards, I don't understand how we can draw like that (2 red cards and 4 yellow), the expulsion of our player is compensation, which has a real impact on the match and I would have preferred to play eleven against eleven ; ten against ten, it's not the same match at all.
Between the two teams, we know each other well and we remain on three 0-0 scores. These are obviously close matches, there is less risk-taking in both teams, why I don't know. These are matches where you have to know how to be effective on the very few opportunities you have.
On a greasy and difficult pitch, for three weeks we have played two matches with ten players, we feel our bodies a little affected and tired. »
