TFC – Saint-Étienne: Toulouse perseveres! How the Violets built their success against the Stéphanois

It is one of those matches that can say a lot about a team, what it has in its stomach and what it can aspire to. After two matches won at the Stadium without conceding a goal (Reims, Auxerre), the TFC had the opportunity, against an AS Saint-Étienne no longer as green as it was, to spend the holidays in the comfort of the first part of the table, close to the European places to which it wants, in the medium term, to claim each season.

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Beaten during his last two outings in Paris (3-0) and Monaco (2-0), he had to at least show that he was intractable against the weakest (Saint-Étienne was 16th at kick-off) failing that to be able to upset the strongest.

For a long time, this last part of Ligue 1 in 2024 was the perfect illustration of what Toulouse lacks to see the bigger picture: there are ideas, ball possession, movements and overall domination, but no goals.

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The Violets seemed, in recent weeks, to have erased this finishing flaw rather well, but from the 6th minute of play, Shavy Babicka came to wake up the ghosts of the Parc des Princes, where he had missed a huge opportunity, similar to this failure with a shot above, while he had been perfectly served in the second by Aboukhlal, after a big press from the Moroccan on Batubinsika.

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This same Batubinsika who made up for this lack of commitment just before half-time, when he returned to the shoulder on Aboukhlal, while the Toulouse number 7 had hooked Larsonneur after a very good service from Dönnum (45 + 1). Another big opportunity not converted by Tef, the third in the first half after King's header went wide following a delivery from Cresswell on a free kick from Sierro (36th).

The TFC did not give itself time to falter

It's also one of those matches where we feel that when it doesn't work on one side, it will end up going on the other, and that's what happened when the Stéphanois, until then not really brilliant, opened the scoring thanks to Stassin, served by a very long cross from Appiah, and left quite alone by Sidibé in the area (0-1, 53rd).

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But if it showed that it sometimes suffered from its efficiency, Carles Martinez Novell's team also proved that it had grown up, and that it had pride. In the wake of the opening score, Shavy Babicka, starting in place of Yann Gboho, diminished by knee discomfort, averted his fate by equalizing with a Nice cross from Suazo (1-1, 55th).

Without having given itself time to falter after the Saint-Etienne goal, Toulouse got back in the right direction, and we must also salute the contribution of its bench and the accuracy of the changes. Apart from the usual holder Gboho who enters in the 60th minute, Frank Magri and Niklas Schmidt both participated in the construction of the action for the winning goal, with the German providing the decisive pass for Zakaria Aboukhlal, who confirms his renewed form in recent weeks, and becomes Toulouse's top scorer this season (5) ahead of Joshua King (4).

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Maybe they weren't great, these Greens, but Tef perseveres: that's three wins in a row at the Stadium, and this Saturday, they wake up 8th, two points behind Nice and Lens… their next opponent in Ligue 1 .