“Woe to the vanquished …” As always before this type of confrontation, the formula came back regularly in the preamble to this Metz-Saint-Etienne, match between the 19th and the 20th in Ligue 1. Of the vanquished, there is no had and it is rather legitimate, as each team undertook to try to win.
A goal from a free kick from Boulaya had aroused appetite at the start of the game (1-0, 9th). But it was above all the feat of Wahbi Khazri who in the first period illuminated the Saint-Symphorien stadium and the French salons equipped with Prime Video: a lob of more than 65 meters, or even 68 meters as mentioned by RMC and OptaJean. But anyway, it is probably the most distant goal scored in Ligue 1, ahead of the marks of David Hellebuyck, 66.2 meters with Nice against Caen in 2008 and Saber Khalifa (a Tunisian international, already ), 64.3 meters with Evian against Nice in 2013.
“I tried it a lot in training, I was laughed at a lot,” Khazri said during Prime Video’s microphone break. It’s good when it succeeds, it’s good especially for the team. I lift the ball, I don’t have too many solutions, I see it advanced (Oukidja), I try it and I am lucky that it goes to the bottom. “
“My group is not giving up”
For Saint-Etienne, the peril remains despite Khazri’s masterpiece. What will happen to coach Claude Puel, knowing that Saint-Etienne has chained a fourteenth game without a win since last May and a victory against OM, the worst series in its history in this area? “That’s not the question, I’ll receive it over and over,” Puel dodged at Prime Video’s microphone. What interests me is to see that my group does not let go and stays in this state of mind. This group has to be rewarded at some point. The rest, I leave it to the media. “
By not losing, Puel certainly obtained a reprieve, especially since the Greens did not foil, far from it. “We were better situated in the second half and we took the physical advantage,” said the former coach of Lille, Lyon or Nice. There is not much missing to capitalize on. It is a point taken outside, even if it does not suit anyone. We stay in line with what we do. “
For Metz, nine months without a win
On the Metz side, if Frédéric Antonetti seems less weakened than his Saint-Etienne counterpart, the situation is hardly brighter than in Saint-Etienne. Thus, the Garnets have not won in their stadium since their success against Nantes (2-0) on January 24, nine months and 13 games without a win at home. “It’s not enough,” said Antonetti. We are short of points. The score is fair, even if we could have won thanks to two situations at the end. They were superior to us physically. Even at 1-0, we were tense, we let go a lot more outside. We deserve to have a few more points, just like Saint-Etienne, confidence is damaged. We have to get out of this period and we will come out stronger. “
