The start was lenient for the professionals FC Lorient (L2), opposed to the amateurs of Ruffiac-Malestroit (R2), for their inaugural round, this Saturday afternoon, in Ploërmel. Cold in this competition, the Merlus arrived in a gigantic local party, 2,500 green and white hearts, who wanted to shout out over the 90 minutes, to experience this unique moment, in Ploërmel, in this historic 7th round of the French Cup . Without having a great match, FC Lorient (L2) monopolized the ball and waited for the opening. It came twice from the captain, Julien Laporte. The Cantalou opened the opposition floodgates, notably a second remote-controlled goal almost 30 minutes in (63'). The playmaker, Pablo Pagis, Mickaël's son, looked back on this 7th round match won against Ruffiac-Malestroit (0-2).
Pablo Pagis (playmaker FC Lorient, L2): “We came up against a team that had the rage to win. It was a complicated first French Cup match, quite closed. We had to break down their opposing defensive curtain. The pitch didn't help us to put on any strength rhythm, in the second half, our opponent was more tired, we had more space to play our game. We certainly didn't have to concede a goal to scare ourselves behind. We did the job this afternoon. Playing against so many people is part of our job as footballers, also knowing how to win this type of match.
We managed to do it well, the team was serious. The motivation was there, we didn't relax following our last victory against Guingamp (3-1, L2). There were quite a few people at the stadium. It's loud, it's not like it sounds hollow. We know that we had everything to lose in this type of context, it was not easy to play.
We took cover with the second goal, which was very beautiful. At 0-2, the match was over for us, but congratulations to this Ruffiac-Malestroit team. We found that he had a good team, well in place, a very strong goalkeeper on his line, he took a few out of us, including mine in the second half. We suspected that they were waiting for us on the lower part of the field. We wanted to score early to reassure ourselves and get into this match in the best possible way. We played the match we wanted to play in any case.”
