MHSC – Auxerre: “The president boosted us at half-time. He told us to play with heart,” says Rabby Nzingoula

Rabby Nzingoula a accompli un match de premier plan contre Auxerre. Midi Libre – Alexandre Dimou

The midfielder believes that the intervention of president Laurent Nicollin at half-time of the match against Auxerre (3-2) was decisive.

Rabby Nzingoula (MHSC midfielder): “The first three points, especially at home, in front of the crowd, it's definitely a relief because we needed them. We had to win this match, I think it's the match where we had to take points and we knew how to do it.

I wouldn't say we doubted. But it's certain that when you concede a goal, when you play well, you take on a few small errors where you're not in the right place at the right time and it pays off dearly. But afterwards, we didn't doubt. We knew that we just had to score a goal to be able to get everything going again. And afterwards, it's certain that we went through a lot of emotions. We scored 2-1 and then we took it back just after. But we knew how to be mentally strong to be able to react and score the third. We talked about a turning point during the week, even last week, this team needed a turning point.

Akor Adams's equalization liberated us. Because when you don't score, it's certain that you're not necessarily confident. And that goal allowed us to free ourselves and create the click.

I think I had a bit of a difficult week. So, for sure, at the start of the match, I couldn't fly straight away. But afterwards, with time, emotions, I was also able to free myself and play my game. It's just fatigue because before arriving here, I hadn't played much. So, I made up for time. But that's part of the game. Those are my qualities, running a lot. And I put them at the service of the collective.

The future will tell us if the season is launched. There is a first big trip in a week to Monaco. There, it will be another adversity, inevitably.

It was really different from the last matches. Yes, we will have to put this kind of ingredients. Because these are matches that are not necessarily played on quality, but rather on desire. I think we will have to show a collective state of mind. That everyone can play their part as they should, as they should be, so that we can go and get a result in Monaco.

There was relief especially in the locker room because we needed it. The president boosted us at half-time. He told us to play with heart. And I think that's what we did in the second half. We played with heart. And that's what allowed us to win.”

Arnaud Nordin (Montpellier forward):“It's certain that we needed a reference match. I think that we put a lot of self-denial into what we did and we are very happy to leave with this victory. Yes, I think that everyone, whether it's the supporters and even us, the staff, everyone went through several emotions. Now, the main thing is the victory. Precisely, we are very happy. We will still have to correct things because we can always improve and do better.

We really gave it our all, even the substitutes. Birama who recovers the ball on the goal, Wabi and even the holder Rabhi, he didn't stop running, Teji. We are really happy and we will have to count on that for the next matches. It was a match a bit like the others. Now, we knew that we had to win it. We needed this match to start our season. It is certain that this victory, it will really count.

We didn't let the coach down. We're with him, we listen to him every time and we want to win, like he tells us. He's a coach who really likes to win, I think that's normal. He instills that. We haven't been able to show it in previous matches and today, we're showing it and we hope to show it again.

Unfortunately, we had a lot of injuries. I think that just having a real left-footer on the left, like Lucas, did us good. Even Birama (Touré) coming on, it did us good. I think that when we also find the injured, it will do us a lot of good for the team.

In the last 15-20 of the first half, it was better. Unfortunately, we hit the bar. But we knew we still had some chances. We also had Akor (Adams) who scored a great shot. We had to continue that, put pressure on them and it worked out well for us. It always feels good for a striker to score. Akor is someone who works very, very hard. We are also there to help him. Today, he scored two goals and he will score two next week, and next week, and next week, and next week again.

Monaco is still a good team. They are a Champions League team. It's bound to be complicated. Now, we're going to go with our weapons to give it our all and try to bring back as many points as possible. Sometimes, it's true that all it takes is one action, one goal. Here, precisely, it allows us to breathe something into it and go all the way."

Birama Touré (Montpellier midfielder) :” It's obviously a relief. We were all expecting this victory. We're happy to take the three points tonight. We had a great second half. Everyone is happy. We managed to get back into the game and leave tonight with the three points.

There was a spirit of revolt. We came back at half-time losing one to zero. We said to ourselves that we had to come back. We knew that this match was very important against a team that is also struggling. If we took the three points, we would have passed them. That's what was done in this second half.

I did what the coach asked me to do in midfield. In the first half, there was Khalil (Fayad) and Rabby (Nzingoula) who also did a good job. I brought that extra something. I managed to recover the ball that went to Téji (Savanier)'s feet and sent Akor (Adams) to goal and allowed us to regain the lead. I did what the coach asked me to do, to be in front of the defense, to try to pick up as many balls as possible to get the others to play. It worked for me tonight.

It's true that spending three months without doing anything is a really long time for a soccer player. I worked well the week of the Rennes match, I worked well this week too. Little by little, I will get my condition back, I will feel better and better.

This victory can be a turning point, but we have to stay focused, we took three points there, we have a big match coming up quickly, so it's up to us to stay focused to try to get a result in Monaco. We must keep the desire to move forward, the desire to go and hurt when we attack, everything we were able to put into this second half, we must keep it to repeat it over 90 minutes.

We were on the continuity of the end of the first half, after in the locker room we said to ourselves that we had the means to go and get a victory, to come back into the score and to go and get the three points and we came back on the field with other intentions and it paid off since we left there with three points.”