The 19th day of Ligue 1 was supposed to give us a lot of answers about the race for first places. In addition to the meeting between Lille and Strasbourg which will be important in the race for European places, the match between OM and RC Lens will be crucial in the title race. Engaged in a mano-a-mano with PSG for first place, the Sang et Or have no room for error at the Vélodrome. In the meantime, PSG, second at the start of the day, should not miss out on the pitch at AJ Auxerre.
Facing finishing problems for several weeks, the capital club had to get its act together after a frustrating defeat in the Champions League against Sporting CP in midweek (2-1). Finally, against the valiant Auxerrois, success took time to take shape at the Abbé-Deschamps stadium. After a plethora of chances, the deliverance came from Bradley Barcola. Author of a good match, the Lyonnais was again distinguished by a cruel lack of efficiency even if he managed to finally deceive Donovan Léon during a face-to-face in the 80th minute of play. A precious goal which allowed PSG to win and temporarily regain its throne as leader of Ligue 1.
Luis Enrique is relieved and defends his players
After the meeting, Luis Enrique was questioned by the teams of Ligue 1+. Asked about the lack of efficiency of his team, the Spanish coach did not hide his relief after Bradley Barcola’s goal which allowed Paris to keep the pace in Ligue 1: “a sigh of relief? Of course. I think the match against Sporting left something negative in confidence. When you come into this match needing three points and you start with fifteen very good minutes but then you start to have problems with inaccuracy…it’s very difficult. I think we deserved to win after that to win, you have to score goals. There was relief when we scored.”
Then relaunched in this mano-a-mano with RC Lens in the race for the title, Luis Enrique had the same speech as Senny Mayulu, who affirmed that he and his team were not going to give up to get the title. The Iberian coach also explains that he is happy to have put pressure on Lens but that he is already focused on the next Champions League match against Newcastle: “confidence is more important, you have to think about having the pressure of confidence. I saw that the players are tense because the same stories are repeated in front of goal. Against Newcastle, there could be the same scenario even if we will have chances. We had to give ourselves confidence this evening. It was time to put pressure on Lens. The most important thing was the three points, we managed to do it. But we will have to do better against Newcastle.
At a press conference, the former Barça coach then defended his players by explaining that the sequence of matches also had a harmful influence on the current performances of his team: “It takes confidence to face this type of situation. In the first fifteen minutes, we had chances but we missed, they defended well. After that moment, we lost balls, we have to continue to improve because it comes at a complicated moment. This is a time when we are imprecise. The players are not machines, today we were not precise in passing and in ball circulation, we can change that because everyone knows the individual quality of the team.» You will have understood, Luis Enrique is standing together with his PSG.
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– UPDATE
