This poster, for the Ruthenian people (including the club), is first of all heartbreaking to play it behind closed doors. “P…, that it would have been good to live it in a boiling hot Paul-Lignon “, did not hide yesterday the coach Laurent Peyrelade. Yes, living a TFC – Raf in the league remains exceptional. Report to the size of the cities, to the power of the two clubs.
It is also perhaps a bit for that that the first leg, in October, had been missed by the Ruthenians too on the reserve (3-0). But this time, they promise. The Toulouse dolphins will not collect three points so easily. “We got a slap, so we won’t turn the other cheek“, warned a Joris Chougrani presenting himself determined yesterday at a pre-match press conference (read elsewhere). A feeling of revenge for the result; but also, even above all, in the manner. “We have to show that we have progressed, that we are able to do much better, much more by being more efficient“, corroborates Peyrelade. Especially since today, the two formations do not really have much to do with that evening. Toulouse goes to Ligue 1 with a record total of goals scored (48) and the Aveyronnais raised their heads, remaining on a short 2-1 loss for the leader of Troyes marking the end of a sacred series of 10 games without loss in L2.
The good moment ?
Rodez must believe it. Because it is perhaps the right moment – or at least the least bad – to face the “formidable machine (Peyrelade) “Haut-Garonnaise. Dupé and his family have 48 hours less recovery than the Aveyronnais. And especially deplore four notable absentees (Machado injured, Dejaegere, Healey, Spierings suspended).”I don’t know if this is the right time. But we know what this Tef team produces and it’s really high level, details Chougrani, before specifying: But, we recently saw that we could annoy a lot of top teams, so we can hope. “For that, it will be necessary”be very, very strong mentally, disciplined and efficient in the few situations that one will have “, warns his coach. As against Clermont (3rd), two weeks ago (2-0).”We’ll have to last, tap and exhaust them“, still specifies” LP “. And that to make drunk with happiness all the people blood and gold. And thus to avoid, at least a little, with its frustration to live an unpublished chapter of the history of the club in distanced mode, by proxy.
Outclassed in October in the first leg, the Ruthenians intend to show a completely different face tonight (7 p.m.) in their desperately empty Paul-Lignon stadium. An Occitan derby which will however not have much to do with as the two teams have changed since.
At the end of January for the match against Sochaux (1-1), they had been – for the first time since the establishment of the sanitary closed door – a good thirty to gather colorfully and aloud, in front of the gates of the stadium for the arrival of their proteges. This afternoon, the Ruthenian supporters met again on rue Vieussens in the middle of the afternoon, to show their support before a match that they had to mark on their calendar as unmissable. A small consolation prize. Of communion especially. The one they miss so much.
The Ruthenian supporters also in derby mode!
Joris Chougrani: “We really want to redeem ourselves”
You who are one of the only native Aveyronnais of the group, does the word derby to qualify this Rodez – Toulouse seem appropriate to you?
Yes, since we are in the Occitanie region, the old Midi-Pyrénes itself. The TFC has always been the flagship club of the Region. But now, the two clubs are playing at the same level, even if we don’t have the same budgets or the same ambitions.
This week during training sessions, it felt that the upcoming match was special?
It didn’t change things. We have been working as we have been doing lately. Afterwards, on the first leg, we considered this match to be a derby and we did not respond at all in the duels or the game (defeat of Rodez 3-0, Editor’s note). So, we are really keen to redeem ourselves, to take our revenge, to increase the level in the duels, the intensity. What we lacked in the first leg.
This spirit of revenge, we feel it truly present …
Yes, it is there because we did not put any ingredients in the first leg to try to move them, to cause them problems. We got a slap in the face, so we’re not going to turn the other cheek.
Would you say that during the first leg you had “watched” Toulouse a little too much?
At the start of the season, when we played them (8th day), they did not have the status or the same dynamic they have now. But, I don’t really know how we approached this match. We may have seen ourselves too beautiful, surely. We were also coming out of a bad series because we had lost Caen 3-0, Clermont 3-0. And we play Tef … and we take three. There, we are on a different dynamic and we know what we lacked on the way out to try, this time, to annoy them.
Even without an audience, can playing at home help you?
Without an audience, at home or outside, it looks a lot alike. But here, it is above all this feeling of having disappointed many people in the first leg that is playing. We said things to each other and there was a lot of disappointment because we had not been up to the task. So there we want to be.
The supporters who will not be at the stadium, we imagine that in a match like this, it is even more missing …
Of course, in a derby, this fervor is lacking, we are not going to hide it. But, now, we have picked up the rhythm of playing without an audience …
If there is one whose feeling of revenge can also be exacerbated, it is Malaly Dembélé. The striker arrived this summer from Nancy should be established this evening in the company of Ugo Bonnet. He who had totally missed the first leg last October, like his first half of the season more than delicate. But in recent weeks, the 23-year-old Parisian seems much better. “He is in good shape, he has found a balance at the level of our group, reveals his coach. About who we were, what he should be, how he should be. And what happens to him today is deserved. . ” Referring here to a growing playing time and, above all, to his two goals scored in the last two matches (in Brest and Troyes, lost 2-1 each time). “He is gradually finding his place,” says Laurent Peyrelade. “It is his moment and we must take advantage of it.”
Malaly Dembélé,
expected confirmation
In millions, the gap between the budgets of Raf and TFC this season. Indeed, the Violets have the largest financial resources of the L2 with some 27 M € of forecast; when the Aveyronnais and their president Pierre-Olivier Murat presented last summer a budget amounting to € 7.2 million (18th). A budget which is also decreasing on the banks of the Garonne (-8 M €).
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