At the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium,
Olivier Dall’Oglio discovered a gift that fell from the sky when he showed up in the interview room at the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium on Thursday evening. Logically beaten (2-1) a few minutes earlier during the first leg of the play-off for accession to Ligue 1, his Metz counterpart Laszlo Bölöni had in fact forgotten his notebook there. A fine player, the Saint-Etienne coach did not have the curiosity to open it. At the same time, what tactical secret could he have discovered from Cristiano Ronaldo’s former coach at Sporting Portugal?
By trolling a bit (not the type of the house), we would think of the same diagram constantly scribbled in 4-5-1, with the brilliant but abandoned Georges Mikautadze at the forefront. “I tried to do with what I had,” sums up the man who will shake up the summer transfer window of our Ligue 1, after having reigned over the return phase of the championship (11 goals in his last 12 matches).
“We are halfway through what we want to do”
But if he managed like a great to send a sudden strike on the post of Gautier Larsonneur (0-0.15), the native of Lyon must be yearning to leave this FC Metz of another time version Bölöni ( 71 years old). Opposite, Saint-Etienne’s intentions were quite different in order to cause the Garnets’ fifth defeat in a row, the club’s record for seven years.
“We played a match worthy of the play-offs,” Irvin Cardona, the final scorer of the evening, legitimately savored (2-1, 81st). Between “play, discipline and intensity” (dixit Olivier Dall’Oglio), ASSE was in the tone of this crucial meeting. Now 95 minutes away from a return to the elite, after two trying seasons in Ligue 2, have the Saint-Etienne club already done the hard part?
“ You have to stay very measured. Besides, there is no euphoria in the locker room. There is no risk of seeing yourself too beautiful. We know that we are halfway to what we want to do. It can be decided in the last minute of the last match. »
“This club deserves Ligue 1, everyone knows that”
Irvin Cardona confirms: “We just went around to thank the supporters but we didn’t celebrate anything because nothing was done. We’ve only made it halfway and we won’t have to suffer on Sunday.” Against FC Metz who were very deep on Thursday (45.5% ball possession, 5 shots attempted to 15), the supposed hierarchy between 16th in Ligue 1 and 3rd in Ligue 2 is not really obvious.
“We took the match into our own hands,” continues Olivier Dall’Oglio. We transcend ourselves through difficulty. » And to transcend yourself, nothing better than letting yourself be guided by the 35,536 spectators at a sold-out Cauldron for the seventh time in a row (a record), and immediately in turmoil. “The supporters are just exceptional,” relishes Irvin Cardona, Sainté’s darling with his 10 goals in 21 games since the start of his loan this winter (from Augsburg). It boosts me: even tired, I ran until I couldn’t anymore this evening. » Greens left-back Léo Pétrot goes further: “We know that this club deserves to be in Ligue 1, everyone knows that. We only have one desire and we demonstrated it this evening, and that is to bring ASSE back to Ligue 1. We want to do it for all these green people.”
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A Cauldron filled with “child’s dreamy eyes”
These green people who had come to terms with the idea of a second season destined to end in the soft underbelly of Ligue 2 (10th after 18 days). But that was before the arrival of the savior duo Dall’Oglio-Cardona, while waiting for the ambitious Canadian group Kilmer Sports Ventures to buy the club in the coming weeks. When Laszlo Bölöni points out “an extremely heavy season, especially psychologically” on the Metz side, the current dynamic in Saint-Etienne is astonishing. It is also symbolized by this second goal from Irvin Cardona in the money-time against Metz and its goalkeeper Alexandre Oukidja (faulty).
“ When I saw Matthieu (Cafaro) on the left side with the ball, ready to go inside, I knew I had to get in front of the goal quickly. There is this connection between us and he gives me a perfect ball. »
This osmosis between the players is obvious, as ASSE enters into a clear program with a view to the return play-off (Sunday at 5 p.m. in Saint-Symphorien), less than three days after the first leg: “first recovery, in 2 recovery, and in 3 recovery” (dixit Olivier Dall’Oglio). Between now and Sunday afternoon, Saint-Etienne midfielder Dylan Chambost has not finished bringing back certain memories. Because this player trained at ASSE had witnessed in May 2004, at the age of 6, the previous rise in the elite of the Greens under Geoffroy Guichard. “With the dreamy eyes of a child,” he explains. Twenty years later, there were others all over the Cauldron, Thursday at 10:13 p.m., when Irvin Cardona flew much higher than Alexandre Oukidja.
