Leaving Toulouse, then Monaco, Rouen (National) impresses in the Coupe de France. But in the quarter-final against Valenciennes on Wednesday, it is the Ligue 2 team that will be the favorite, assures coach Maxime d’Ornano. Two qualifications on penalties, one being joined at the last minute and having all 11 players shoot, including Amédé Kabongo who was suffering from a ruptured Achilles tendon, another being led by Monaco: FC Rouen has come a long way.
Feats on paper, but not surprises given the lively game produced by the Normans. “The players are fabulous. We dream of things and they do them,” Maxime d’Ornano reacted quickly after Monaco. “To the guys, I never talk to them about exploits or surprises. I talk to them about performance. Against Toulouse, we put in a performance. Against Monaco, a great performance,” the coach of the Red Devils explained to AFP a few days ago.
“In the Cup, if the little one is at 150% of his means and the big one maybe only at 80%, it can work. But all the planets have to be aligned and that was the case for us in these two matches,” he admits. His greatest satisfaction is to have felt “the players at ease and not petrified”, which allowed them to “fight against contrary events”.
And victories against contrary events, the 43-year-old coach, born near Toulon but based since childhood in the West, has experienced them, on the lawns and on the benches. If an injury, while he was at INF Clairefontaine, confined him to an amateur career (Lannion, Saint-Brieuc, Avranches), he took on the coaching tunic at the age of 19.
In parallel with his matches first, then full-time at Lannion and Saint-Brieuc, which he took to the National, in 2020, before suddenly leaving five days from the end, the following season, to everyone’s surprise . Nine months later, he bounced back in Rouen, which he also took to the third national level last summer, and to his first Cup quarter-final in 25 years.
“I don’t know if these are things that will happen frequently – I think I’m only at the beginning of my career – but you have to take advantage of these moments,” said d’Ornano. Being an amateur, we are a little familiar with the high level through these matches, we simply live for these matches,” he added.
A real ray of sunshine in a season darkened by a five-point withdrawal inflicted at the end of November by the financial policeman of French football, the DNCG. If the rise seems compromised for Rouen, 8th, it must above all not finish beyond 12th place out of 18, the last synonymous with maintenance, due to the transition from L2 to 18 clubs next season.
The withdrawal of points, “it’s something that we suffered head-on,” admitted the coach, but “with the guys, we always said to ourselves that once we were on the field , we were there for our own mission, for the athlete. The rest is managed by our leaders. It’s true that it sucks a little juice, you have to be honest,” he also admitted, “but it brings so many emotions that, if you choose, you would do the same thing again.”
A historic club with 19 seasons in the elite, FC Rouen 1899 once again ignites the Robert-Diochon stadium where 10,000 spectators will flock. “We are in a football city, in a real football club, with real fervor, supporters… Whether you win or lose, they are there, at home and away. “It’s also for them” that we play, continued the coach.
This quarter against Valenciennes, bottom of L2, “it will be the hardest match because we have just beaten two Ligue 1s, so everyone will perhaps see us as favorites”, however warned d’Ornano after Monaco. “They didn’t get there by chance, Valenciennes has a very strong history of high-level football. They know that,” he warned.
