Clermont coach Pascal Gastien assured Sunday after the victory against Le Havre (2-1) during the 26th day of Ligue 1, that the CF63 “was not going to let the matches slip away” in the race for the maintenance.
The Auvergne club, last in the ranking, came back to three points behind Metz (17th) and five lengths behind Nantes, 16th and jump-off. “We are not going to let it go out of respect for the people who follow us and out of respect for Ligue 1,” Gastien said at a press conference. “We are doing our best. The players put in the work in training. It’s in everyone’s interest to be together. We want to see Ligue 1 matches next season,” commented Pascal Gastien.
Insisting on the victory against Le Havre, the first at home since that obtained on November 12 against Lorient (1-0), the coach remembers only one thing: “it is that we won and that makes us feel greater good.” “At Clermont football, you cannot lack aggression and intensity. It’s the minimum. Afterwards, there is the game. We showed commitment and solidarity, more coherent movements too. I liked the state of mind of the players overall,” he confided.
“We delivered a good match against Brest (1-1), a good match in Nice (0-0) (…) But the degree of investment was higher today,” Gastien also recognized. “It’s really the offensive efficiency that we have sorely lacked for quite some time. This is the story of our season. We lack efficiency and success. In particular, we pulled the amounts ten times. Today it smiled on us more than usual,” he concluded.