Valuable success in the race for survival

Scheduled to take place at the same time as the professionals' match at Lens, the Reserves had a date with Espaly at L'Etrat, direct opponents for survival. With Ibrahim Sissoko starting up front and Lamine Fomba in midfield, Sylvain Gibert's first game on the bench got off to a flying start. Les Verts scored an early goal, but it was immediately disallowed for offside. Their intentions were good and Les Verts were rewarded a few minutes later when Maedine Makhloufi once again showed his magic touch, heading home Cheikh Fall's opener from a corner (ASSE 1-0 Espaly, 13th). Les Verts were logically ahead at half-time and came back into the second half with the same intentions. With their enterprising spirit and good form, the reserves even scored a second goal, almost a carbon copy of the first, with Cheikh Fall once again scoring with a furious header (ASSE 2-0 Espaly, 64th).

Next Saturday, the reserve team will take on Chambéry on their own turf in a match that is just as important for their survival.

The coach's reaction

It was important to win this kind of game against a direct rival, and we knew they were a tough team to play against. So it's very satisfying! Scoring from two set-pieces shows that hard work pays off. We've been working on that since the start of the year. Razik (Nedder) had insisted that coach Haïdar (Al Shaïbani), the goalkeeping coach, take over this area. It's become a weapon, we have to keep going and we mustn't slacken off. I congratulated the lads because I really liked their attitude and the way they stuck to their instructions today. I didn't want to spoil the party for them, but you have to be able to get your head back in the game as quickly as possible because we're not there yet.
The last two weeks have been a bit special for me following the departure of Razik Nedder, so we've obviously been thinking about him today because it's important to him that things go well at the end of the season. Above all, I'd like to thank the club and its directors for the confidence they've shown in me. We're going to try to carry out the mission I've been given until the end of the season. I'd also like to highlight the fact that we've been able to benefit from the contribution of three players from the pro squad. In a difficult league, it's very important to have experienced players and today they showed that they were motivated to come and play with us and you could see that in the match. It helped us win the game, said Sylvain Gibert at the end of the match.

The game sheet

National 3 - Matchday 21 (pool I)
Sunday 6 April at L'Étrat
ASSE 2-0 Espaly
Half-time score: 1-0
Goals: C. Fall (13th and 64th) for ASSE
ASSE: B. Fall - Nzuzi (then Dodote, 62nd), Kinunga, J.Mouton, Makhloufi - Fomba, Gauthier (then Gadegbeku, 74th), C. Fall, Gauthier - Agesilas, Kies (then El Jamali 81st), Sissoko (cap) (then Mayilla, 81st). Coach: Sylvain Gibert