“Competition with Lucas pushes us to be better”

Abraham Sissoko showed up in the mixed zone just after Dylan Batubinsika. The Saint-Etienne defender revealed that he had asked his attacker to score: “It allows us to keep the balls, it allows us to breathe in several moments of the match. It’s important to us. Today our number 9 scored two goals so it’s good for confidence. We know that we haven’t scored many goals since the start of the season but if he continues to score doubles for us, we’re takers (laughs). This week I asked him to score goals, he did it, I think I will continue (laughs).“

A version confirmed by Abraham Sissoko which then returns more generally to the match: “It’s true (smile). During the week he told me that I needed to score more goals, I admit, it’s true. (…) Mission accomplished? We’re going to say half accomplished because we took a slap last week, we were keen to leave with something, we would have hoped for better, but the point we are taking today is very important and we’re not going to spit on it. It bodes well for the future. He reassures everyone a little, he gives a lot of strength and energy to everyone, we simply have to continue like that.

After what happened last week, we all wanted revenge. Already raise our heads and show that we did not arrive in Ligue 1 by chance. After all, nothing is decided, but after last week’s slap, having a reaction today was a normal thing. (…) Above all, we are athletes and human beings. Last week, we got stepped on. The reaction was normal. We showed that we had pride and with pride and a lot of determination, even if I think it is there on a daily basis, with very solid foundations, we are capable of doing good things. We showed it this afternoon.

We know that it is very complicated to concede a goal very early but what is good is that we did not give up, we showed solidity, we reassured ourselves I think during periods of possession where we showed that we too could put them in difficulty. The chances and corners that we were able to get put us back in the match and gave us confidence. Afterwards it was better to start the second half.“

Abraham Sissoko also mentions competition with Lucas Stassinto whom he was preferred at kick-off yesterday afternoon, unlike the last two matches: “Lucas (Stassin) is a young player with a lot of quality. Competition with Lucas pushes each of us to be better. If I need this to be even better, that’s great..”

Finally, the Saint-Etienne striker talks about his first two goals scored in Ligue 1: “I expected them yes and no, frankly. I’m a striker, I want to score goals but we still have the small image of last week and before tackling a match like that, we don’t think too much about scoring goals, about individual statistics, we mainly think about making a solid match with everything that happened. With luck and success, I manage to have opportunities and today I took advantage of them.“