Club on the upward slope for several seasons now, the US Thionville Lusitanos is now a resident of National 2 in 2024-2025 and can legitimately say that it has a chance of winning against a few professional clubs in French Cupparticularly in National. This is precisely the case of Valenciennes FC, relegated from Ligue 2 in May and in poor form this year, who has just changed coaches but who loved this competition last season. Julien François, coach of the Moselle club and former professional player who played for Metz, Grenoble, Tours, HAC and Gazélec Ajaccio, tells our colleagues from Républicain Lorrain that he does not take his opponent in the 32nd finals for an ordinary club that does not evolves only one division above.
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“Valenciennes is an L2 National club. It’s almost 15 million budget, a crazy stadium, top facilities. It’s a slightly downgraded club but it was a semi-finalist in the Coupe de France last season. They had a complicated end to the year with coaching rotations. That doesn’t really suit us for observation and video analysis because we suspect that that will change with the arrival of Hognon (who replaces Ahmed Kantari, editor’s note.). It’s not that it complicates things, but it calls into question the work upstream a little. »
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“I played against Vincent Hognon, my father trained him in the Lorraine selection. He’s a local, he must have two or three spies around to give him information. Afterwards, it remains a Cup match, there is always this element of irrationality, we will have to look for the right energy to overthrow this team […]. I heard that Thionville had never been present in the round of 16. We are writing the history of a young club. Since 2021, this is our fourth season, and our dynamic is very positive. It’s yet another opportunity to write a new page in history while keeping in mind that there is a legacy behind us and that Thionville has already achieved great things in French football. »
Source : republicain-lorrain.fr
Photo Hugo Pfeiffer/Icon Sport
