Although he believes that they “deserved to win” this Saturday against OM (1-1), Olivier Létang was nevertheless proud of the strength of character of Lille who snatched a draw, three days after their victory against Sturm Graz (3-2) in the Champions League. And he took the opportunity to reiterate his ambitions.
A “frustrating” draw but one with which he will be satisfied. At the end of the final whistle at the Vélodrome, Olivier Létang spoke at the microphone of BeIN Sports after Olympique de Marseille and Losc parted with an equal score (1-1) on Saturday on the occasion of the 15th day of Ligue 1. “To come back to my comments, they were mainly for the health of the players. When you have played 25 matches, we are talking about physical but also mental fatigue”, explained the president of Losc, who had pointed out the scheduling of this match, only three days after that in the Champions League.
And continued: “We took a big tip of the hat to the boys in the locker room because yes, we would have wanted to win tonight – and I think we would have deserved it, we had a lot of chances in the first half – time – but it demonstrates the strength of character of this group who went for a well-deserved draw. Even if there were slightly more difficult moments in the second half, this result is completely logical. (…) What interests me is the personality of the team I want a team that fights, that never gives up, that is united. These are our values and we saw them tonight.
“Qualify for a European competition every year”
Runners-up to PSG, the Marseillais remained on three consecutive victories. This result allows Lille to maintain – for the moment – fourth place. A campaign so far well run, in parallel with the Champions League where they are also well placed: after the first six days (out of eight) of the league phase, Bruno Genesio's players are 8th after their victory against Sturm Graz (3-2) Wednesday. If they are provisionally directly qualified for the rest of the competition, they are above all guaranteed to compete in the play-offs.
-Enough to see their ambitions on the rise this season? “We set goals between us in the locker room, which we don’t need to broadcast,” evades Olivier Létang. “But one thing is certain, and we remind it all the time, it is that our DNA is to win. We want to win all the matches, the big ones, the small ones. We said it when we came to Marseille , we said it before playing Real Madrid – everyone looked at us with wide eyes. We will take stock with five games to go to know what we can achieve but our goal is to win them all. matches and qualify for a European competition every year.
