Champions League (3rd day). Stade Brestois – Bayer Leverkusen (ALL): 1-1
It seems crazy to say that you come away from a draw against the German champion with regrets…
With these two situations at the end of the match, it’s true that we can have slight regrets. But above all we remember the pride of having played a match like that, of having responded and, above all, of having mastered the second half against the German champion!
You were a little timid in the first half…
The Bayer Leverkusen goal stung us a little, because it’s true that we weren’t necessarily in it, we were a little late in the duels, a little out of time, so it’s true that conceding this goal, it stung us. And scoring before half-time, yes, it gave us confidence, it proved to us that we could do it, and we saw it, in the second half, it was rather controlled. Bayer doesn’t have much, Marco (Bizot) doesn’t have many saves to make, and we have situations at the end.
We have the impression that you have gained strength, even physically, over the minutes. How to explain it?
I think it’s mainly with confidence, because physically, before the match, we were good too. So yes, we gained confidence and it worked for us, let’s say. We also knew that they were going to get hit a bit at half-time and we wanted to respond! It’s true that we slowly gained the upper hand in controlling the ball, it also did us good to have the ball, not just to run behind. That is also one of the objectives and we were able to control the second half.
How do you feel as captain?
Yes, but everyone can be proud of each of their teammates and each of the supporters, because it was another great atmosphere. Everyone at the club can be proud, even if we didn’t win! We had a draw, that’s good, but we could have done a little better.
You already have seven points out of nine possible. Is it more than satisfactory?
That’s good: the seven points taken are no longer up for grabs. They’re warm, those, and no one can take them away from us. We are moving forward slowly in this mini-championship, in this qualifying phase. We are moving forward slowly.
We almost predicted hell for you before the start of this Champions League… It’s incredible what’s happening, isn’t it?
It was unimaginable, it’s true! Like last year, when we said in January that we weren’t going to resist the big guys who were chasing us down the rankings, in Ligue 1. We didn’t steal anything from anyone, we deserve everything that happens to us. It proves that we are good players and a good team.
And how far can this Brest go?
We’ll see, we’ll take stock at the end of the season. We, in any case, have high ambitions. These seven points are good. We hope to qualify, we don’t know how many points it will take with this new formula: 8, 9, 10? We don’t know… But we don’t ask any questions!
