Next Sunday, the OL-ASSE derby will make its return after more than 2 years of absence. A match like no other for the players of both teams, as Stéphanois Louis Mouton recalls in his own way.
Some matches on the schedule are worth more than others and can totally turn over an entire audience. This is the case of the OL-ASSE derby, presented as the biggest derby in France. Both clubs already need points, Lyon for Europe and Saint-Etienne to maintain, but this meeting has inestimable value. This is all the more the case as Lyonnais and Stéphanois had been deprived of this meeting for two seasons after the relegation of the Greens to Ligue 2 in 2022. The significance of this match was summed up by young Stéphanois midfielder Louis Mouton.
Beating OL is worth 100 points
Present in the mixed zone after his team's 2-0 success against Strasbourg, Mouton was questioned about next Sunday's meeting. It's difficult to know derby better than Louis Mouton since he was trained at ASSE and played several among the youth. The 22-year-old Saint-Etienne midfielder is impatient to finally play this match in Ligue 1, obviously wanting to achieve a result despite OL's superiority on paper. He estimated the value of a victory in Lyon compared to a classic Ligue 1 match and it is confusing.
« It's an ultra special match. It's a 100-point game. It's unimaginable. It's incredible to experience derbies like that. There is really a rivalry…even when we were young we received 2000 spectators when we were only 15 years old. There was already incredible enthusiasm so we will try to do the best we can. We will try to fight with our weapons and not give up », he said on the microphone of the TL7 channel. It is true that a victory in Lyon would make Saint-Etienne supporters forget their sluggish start to the season and in particular the 8-0 blow they received in Nice.
France
