This is the step to take to change dimension. A scratch in this Ligue 2, with its attractive game and its somewhat different profiles, En Avant Guingamp displayed certain limits, nevertheless, against the big teams in the championship. The Bretons have not beaten a single one so far. “It’s an observation, it’s not interpretable,” recognizes Sylvain Ripoll. The numbers are there. We fell at Paris FC (2-0, September 24), we fell at Metz (1-0, October 25), we fell at Lorient (3-1, November 9). Against Annecy, we drew at home (2-2, September 20). That means that in these matches we were missing something. Efficiency, certainly, because we faced these formations during a period when we lacked them. And even defensively, we gave too many gifts. By changing all of that, seeking to improve and presenting even more solid content, we will see what these new confrontations will be like. »
Ligue 1 intensity
The one that advances already has something different since it will be played at Roudourou, while the Costarmoricans had traveled to face PFC, Lorient and Metz. “There is the public, we are at home,” recalls midfielder Kalidou Sidibé. However, here, no one should come into our living room and put their feet on the table. There is additional motivation. » For the former Quevilly-Rouen Métropole player, the team sometimes lacks intensity. “In Lorient, they walked all over us,” recalls the 25-year-old. They were advancing on us. In fact, they showed us what Ligue 1 intensity was. And we have to respond to it. What pisses me off is that at the end of each match, when we play against opponents like that, we lose and they tell us that we are a great team. »
Dunkirk, the road to follow
For En Avant, this is obviously the major axis of progression: to compete, with a different style and means, with teams calibrated for the level above. If, at the base, Dunkirk was not scheduled to play the climb, the certainties displayed for several months by the Northerners, tied for second with the PFC, now make them a top level opponent in Ligue 2. “With their ideas of game, they pose enormous problems for everyone, confirms Sylvain Ripoll. They have six points more than us, that’s a lot. They went to beat a Ligue 1 team at home (Auxerre, in the Coupe de France, Editor’s note). What’s more with a reshuffled team. It shows that there is homogeneity in the group. I don’t know how far they will go but I hope that this Saturday it won’t go so well for them. » As we conclude the first leg and begin this new year, En Avant knows what remains to be done.
Senegal
