The calendar for the 2024/2025 Ligue 1 season was revealed this Friday. ASSE supporters were logically impatiently awaiting this deadline to be able to mark the matches in the diaries that they absolutely do not want to miss. Here are the five matches from the first leg (until D17) that the editorial team is most looking forward to!
D1 – Monaco/ASSE (August 18): Sainté back in Ligue 1
AS Saint-Etienne will celebrate its return to the elite of French football in Monaco on August 18. The poster looks set to be hot, not thanks to the Monegasque supporters, but because of the very hot temperature in the south of France, but also to the Saint-Etienne supporters who will undoubtedly be numerous to go to Louis II. Because after all… It’s nice, it’s warm, everyone in Monaco, everyone in Monaco.
On a sporting level, Monaco finished runner-up to PSG and is therefore preparing to make its return to the Champions League. Orphaned by Wissam Ben Yedder, Adi Hütter’s squad will certainly already be competitive from the first day of the championship in order to best prepare for entry into the Champions League, a month later on September 17.
Olivier Dall’Oglio’s Greens will certainly be keen to succeed in their return to Ligue 1, even if there is a strong chance that during this match, the Saint-Etienne squad will not be the same as the 1st. September at the end of the summer transfer window.
D7 – ASSE/Auxerre (October 6): A budding rivalry, episode 5
Greens supporters have certainly ticked this meeting off their agenda. The Kop Sud faithful even more so, since this will be the date of their return to the stadium. Indeed, the Kop Sud will miss the first two home matches of the season for using pyrotechnic devices at the end of last season. This poster will undoubtedly arouse enthusiasm, because it must be admitted, a certain dramaturgy surrounds this emerging rivalry between Saint-Etienne and Auxerre. This rivalry was born during the L1/L2 play-offs of the 2021/2022 season which resulted in the relegation of ASSE to Ligue 1. Then, it developed last season with a humiliating defeat of ASSE at Abbé-Deschamps (5-1) and a striking victory for the Greens in a packed Cauldron in a meeting marred by some contentious refereeing decisions (1-0).
ASSE will therefore find a completely open Cauldron against Auxerre and will normally be able to count on its two lungs for this meeting, against another promoted team, which will undoubtedly be decisive in the fight for maintenance.
D11 – Lyon/ASSE (November 10): The great return of the Derbys
Do we need to argue? The return of derbies, the return of the biggest rivalry in French football. A rivalry that even goes beyond sport. So obviously, the derby in the suburbs, especially since the construction of the new stadium, does not have the same flavor as the derby in the Cauldron, but it is a foretaste and what a foretaste. This will be the first time since January 2022 that the Greens will return to Lyon.
This derby will also have a special flavor, because since the last confrontation between the two teams, the squads have changed greatly. On the Greens side, historic players like Hamouma and Sako have left the club, players trained at the club and therefore steeped in the rivalry like Nordin, Camara, Gourna, Sow have taken off. What about Moueffek and Nadé who are at the end of their contract this summer?
Finally, will the question of the movement of Greens supporters arise? Or will the automatic and easy “no” be argued by the authorities?
D14 – ASSE/Marseille (December 8): The return of snow?
This is THE big poster for the home leg. And this statement is not made thanks to the opponent’s ranking last season (8ᵉ). The match between Saint-Etienne and Marseille is historic, as is the rivalry between the two teams. The meetings between Sainté and Marseille systematically have their share of events, declarations, atmospheres, animations, provocations which add drama to sporting meetings which usually already do not lack salt.
The latest arrival of the Marseilles to Saint-Etienne is now in the realm of the legendary. Saturday April 2, 2022… uh Sunday April 3, 2022, sorry, excuse us. Let’s start again, Sunday April 3, 2022, and 24 hours late, the two teams enter the pitch of a sold-out Cauldron. The Greens in the fight to maintain their position receive Marseilles in the middle of the race for Europe. The meeting was postponed for 24 hours following very heavy snowfall in Forez. The town of Saint-Etienne and the Chaudron are covered in a thick white coat. After several hours of discussions, delays and negotiations, plunging the thousands of supporters from all over France into uncertainty and total vagueness, the postponement of the meeting until the next day was decided and announced. The meeting itself turned into a disaster for the Greens, notably with an own goal from Kolodziejczak which still haunts the minds of the supporters.
Will Marseille’s return to Saint-Etienne be accompanied by the return of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang? This would be a real event.
D17 – PSG/ASSE (January 12): At the Park to take stock at mid-term
Greens supporters have more bad memories of matches against PSG than good ones for many years. Saint-Etienne has not won in Paris since November 2012. Twelve years. This trip to the capital, which will change from those of recent years to Charléty, will mark the end of the first leg and will allow us to establish an initial assessment, right in the middle of the winter transfer window. The Greens will know what their real objectives are in the return phase.
This trip to Paris could also constitute, if he is still from Saint-Etienne next season, a reunion for Dylan Batubinsika with his training club.
