Leaving the locker room very quickly to head quickly towards the airport, the SM Caen players took the time to look back on a frustrating evening, which still included some positive lessons. Jessy Deminguet, the former teammate of some of them, also stopped to talk about the success of FC Metz and the reunion with Stade Malherbe.
Alexandre Mendy (SM Caen striker): “This defeat is very frustrating because I believe it is one of our best matches in terms of content. Unfortunately, this evening, there was an attacker, me, who was not successful. I failed to help the team. Everyone was good and for my part, I missed a lot of success. Well, rather successful on the first two and I was clumsy on the last.
Usually I have half a chance and I put it in the back whereas tonight I have three real chances, even four, and I don’t put one in. It’s frustrating. There is no logic. We have to get up and try to make the team win the next match. Today, I cost the team, at least, a point. »
Mathias Autret (SM Caen midfielder): “I find this defeat difficult to digest, because I think the match was good. I have the feeling that we played the match we needed, without the success we had against Bastia, for example. We hit the posts twice, we have situations that are a little hot. It comes down to details, especially since we were facing a very good team.
It’s a rather encouraging defeat. Even if we don’t take points, there are plenty of things to keep. Obviously, we can do better, but if we scored a goal and came away with a point, it wasn’t a hold-up. We have situations that we must manage even better. We’re going to keep the content, which is one of the best so far. When you have trouble digesting a defeat, it’s often a good sign, it means that the content was good.
In accounting terms, this is really not a good transaction. There was just a good one to do. At some point, we will have to take points. We were coming off two victories, we had managed to gain a little confidence. It’s a shame to be stopped like that.
Personally, I had a long period of absence because of my calf. It took a while to get back. I was lucky enough to do an hour in reserve a while ago. Playing again is good for morale. »
Quentin Lecoeuche (SM Caen defender): “It’s frustrating. It’s easy to say that we had a good match, but we lost. It was much better in holding the ball, in desire and determination. Now, they gave us a lesson in efficiency in this match and this is also where we must improve.
I think we all had fun playing together. But in our situation, these are points that must be taken. We cannot be satisfied with this match. We missed that last pass and that last gesture.
It’s a very tight Ligue 2, at the bottom or at the top of the table. If we won today, we would go eighth or ninth. We have to take points quickly because if we continue to play like this, I think we can play a little higher than our current ranking. »
Jessy Deminguet (FC Metz midfielder): “There was a lot of intensity in this match, which could have gone either way. We were able to score this goal which did us a lot of good. We were lucky that Alex (Mendy) put his chances wide or on the post. We have two victories in a row for the first time this season. Caen had a good match but we knew how to be effective.
I still know a lot of people at Stade Malherbe. It made me happy to see them, as well as the Caen public. It was important to go see them and thank them. Now there will be a return match in Caen which will be special for me. It’s the first time I faced Stade Malherbe since I left, it’s quite strange, especially when I went to see the public at the end.
There was also my family. Before and after the match, from an emotional point of view, it was a bit special. Today, I do not regret my choice (to leave). Honestly, today, there are no more regrets. It’s in the past, it’s behind me. Today, I am moving forward. Afterwards, I would have liked it to have happened differently. But there were a lot of things internally that were wrong…”
