Ligue 1. “Mentally, I hope this will do everyone good”, “we want real supporters”: reactions after the MHSC victory against Metz

Michel Der Zakarian était forcément satisfait du résultat des siens. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

MHSC coach Michel Der Zakarian fully appreciated the logical victory obtained on Sunday February 18 at La Mosson against Metz (3-0) during the 22nd day of Ligue 1.  This success , the second of the season at La Mosson, is only the first stone in a race to maintain which promises to be indecisive.

MHSC

Michel Der Zakarian, MHSC coach: "Perfect evening ? In terms of the score (3-0), it& ;#39;is good for goal-average. This allows us to catch up and overtake Nantes. We could have scored more if we had played fairer at times.

Before scoring our first goal, we create two or three situations that we never finish. After this first goal, we carried the ball too much for my liking, we moved less. And when we lost the ball, we were countered. Fortunately, we defended quite well on these occasions. We gave the opponent confidence.

We're happy. We had an obligation to win. There are twelve games left. It's very tight. We are in a fight with five or six teams. We'll have to pick up points wherever we can if we want to move forward. Mentally, I hope this will do everyone good. We must continue to work well throughout the week to perform well on the weekend.

Public ? From the start, we have known that we need to have supporters. We want real supporters who come to encourage and enhance the players, and not to do stupid things and make us lose points. This will count. We still have important matches against good teams and teams that are just ahead of us.

Adams: "He's having a bad time at the moment"

Why was Akor Adams on the bench ? He's having a bad time at the moment. And we wanted to breathe it out a little and bring together Arnaud (Nordin) and Mousa (Tamari). Their start to the match was very good. We found them quite high up. They did good things in discounts and moves. Both have the ability to dribble and make shifts. It’s up to us to use them even better. We could indeed revisit their association.

Good start to the half ? We managed to do it last year when we won matches. We started the match well and we were efficient. On the third occasion, we hit the mark. And, therefore, it hurts the opponent. This is the consequence of the players returning, of the work done during the week. There must be no slackening. We must continue to work hard. When you don't work hard, you don't play hard.

For Omeragic (replaced at the end of the match by Falaye Sacko), he has been playing for three or four matches with an aponeurosis problem."

Metz

Lazslo Boloni, coach of FC Metz: "We were below our opponent in terms of speed of play and contacts. We saw that all the technical advantages of the adversary hurt us.

Montpellier had too much trouble scoring the first goal. Furthermore, each time we looked up, we found good situations to score. But, we missed everything we created. We lacked rigor in marking on the second goal. Montpellier surpassed us, in the physical domain and in combativeness

This is the mentality that we will have to have in the next matches. We know the reality of the first division and the ranking. We know it's going to be difficult until the end. We will suffer until the end of the championship. We will try to obtain the best possible result."