Thursday, Saint-Etienne hardly got rid of the Epinal amateur club (2-1) in order to make it to the semi-finals of the Coupe de France.
In early March, Claude Puel’s Greens will face Stade Rennais in an attempt to clinch a qualification in the final against PSG or OL. But in the mind of the Saint-Etienne coach, the Coupe de France is far from being a priority. The proof, after the success of ASSE at Marcel-Picot Thursday evening, the former manager of Leicester and Southampton repeated that the only goal of Saint-Etienne at the end of the season was to maintain. As a reminder, the Greens are fifteenth with only four small points ahead of Nîmes, the current roadblocker.
“Objective # 1 is the next game, Sunday (at Brest, 5 p.m., day 25 of L1, editor’s note) in two and a half days against a team that has rested. I do not know in what state, nor with which players we will fight. However, we will have to be present because we have to bounce back. The most important thing is the championship. We are not well classified. We have to break this spiral. It’s good to have won this evening (Thursday) for the heads. We always recover faster “ said Claude Puel, for whom the one and only objective of AS Saint-Etienne at the end of the season is to ensure its maintenance. A relatively careful speech which should not really please the regulars of the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, who would like to dream a little during this chaotic season. Certainly, the Coupe de France is a good way to give pleasure to the green people, with a semi-final to be played at home against the defending champion, Rennes.