A few blood and gold players met at the “Le Central” restaurant in Rodez on Thursday evening to experience the draw. We were there.
Impatience. This is the word that characterizes the minutes that preceded the revelation of the quarter-final poster for Rodez, at the Central. It must be said that the innocent hands of the former OM and Auxerre (well, then), Djibril Cissé, took time before giving their verdict. Enough to make Éric Vandenabeele, Antoine Valerio, Lucas Buadès, Killian Corredor, Clément Depres, Nikoloz Kutateladze, and winter rookie Martin Adeline impatient. “Go there, do the draw”we heard several times, from the players, and from a few curious people seated in the restaurant.
Not OM, not at home, but Toulouse is already good
But our colleagues from France 3 had decided to make the suspense last, by taking the antenna five minutes late, and by touring the national sports news before, as is the tradition of their program “All sport” . From the Alpine Skiing World Championships, to tennis player Alexander Bublik’s freakout at the Montpellier tournament – who helped relieve the pressure of the draw, provoking the hilarity of the group -, to victory “impressive” Marseille against PSG, Wednesday evening, according to the words of Corredor: the Ruthénois had to be patient. Until 8:57 p.m. Time at which the first balls were drawn.
And Didier Santini’s proteges were directly put in the bath, since it was OM who were drawn first. An opponent who of course made them all dream. “The magic of the Coupe de France is also to play against big teams, in stadiums in which we have never played before, like the Vélodrome”, reported the second blood and gold scorer in Auxerre. His eyes lit up like a child one morning on December 25, the moment Cissé pulled the second ball out of the bowl, hoping Rodez was in it. Valerio tapped his fingers on the table, just to occupy the few seconds of suspense… But no, it was Annecy. “ At least we won’t go there.”, reassured the group ironically. So, to satisfy them, they only had one option left: to receive a quarter. And there too, it turned out to be a failure. But they had felt it, when the name of Toulouse appeared on the screen: “It’s for us, that’s for sure. » And yes, it was. “I am disappointed that we are not welcoming Paul-Lignon, but we could have had much worse”, relativized Depres. A feeling shared by his other teammates, and in particular Buadès: “There are a few supporters who had made the trip to Auxerre, but there we expect the Ruthenian parking lot to be even fuller”. A lesser evil, which has convinced everyone: playing at the Stadium is not such a bad draw.
