Derby behind closed doors but under close surveillance despite everything: Stéphanois and Lyonnais are preparing to do battle on Sunday evening in a tense climate.
On Saturday afternoon, nearly a hundred Green supporters made the trip to the club’s headquarters in Étrat (Loire) to attend training. They were kept at bay.
The Loire prefecture also issued a decree on Thursday banning the presence of OL supporters in a large area around the stadium, encompassing all or part of five municipalities, from 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Access to Saint-Etienne from the A47 motorway, at the entrance to the Loire department, as well as via other roads, is also prohibited for them.
These arrangements were made despite the introduction of the 6:00 p.m. curfew. In her decree, the prefect of the Loire, Catherine Seguin, cites a series of incidents during previous meetings between the two clubs, from 2017 until the derby on March 1.
The prefecture has also requested the support of a mobile force unit (CRS or mobile gendarmerie) and a helicopter, we learned from law enforcement officials.
This Sunday, several hundred Lyon supporters met on the forecourt of Groupama Stadium in Décines to cheer on their team before the match.
The same pressure of the result
This 122nd derby between the two rival clubs opposes Sunday at 9 p.m. two formations with diametrically opposed courses, but subject to the same pressure of the result.
After two losses, ASSSE are just four points ahead of play-off Nîmes. OL, for their part, settled on the podium but their surprise setback against Metz (1-0) last weekend knocked them down from first to third place, behind PSG and Lille.
Last Saturday, before the defeat in Strasbourg (1-0), two of the five groups of Stéphanois supporters (the Independantistes Stéphanois 1998 and the Green Angels 1992) had deployed large banners demanding the resignation of the leaders.
At the same time, these supporters had installed at Saint-Etienne airport, from where the plane chartered by their team took off to go to Strasbourg, a banner declaring: “Staff, players: we believe in you. Objective maintenance! Let’s go Green ! “.