These are ninety minutes, perhaps a little more, which will feed – in sadness or joy – the legend of two monuments of French football.
The dream of a resurrection and a return to the fore for Auxerre ten years after its relegation, the fear of another world and a descent into hell for Saint-Étienne, 21 years later, with the approach of a new season which will record only two climbs from Ligue 2.
Three days after the first leg of the Ligue 1 accession play-off, which ended in a draw (1-1) between the two teams, in an Abbé-Deschamps stadium with a great evening atmosphere , the outcome of this 2021-2022 football season will therefore be known this Sunday.
For the occasion, the cauldron of Geoffroy-Guichard should be boiling, despite the closure of the Jean Snella stand, after the events that occurred during the meeting against AS Monaco (1-4), on April 23.
Jean-Marc Furlan, four accessions, a record
“The wonderful show this evening in the stands augurs an exceptional atmosphere in the Cauldron this Sunday.
The supporters, at home, act like a twelfth man.
We will see it this weekend, ”said Pascal Dupraz, the coach of the Greens, after the first leg in Auxerre, on the club's official website.
The latter, who arrived in December to play firefighters on duty, had notably regretted the lack of finishing of his men in the first period – Adil Aouchiche and Denis Bouanga among others – despite the opening of the quick score by Zaydou Youssouf.
🎯 Decisive!
The very important goal of @Zaydou_Youssouf is to be reviewed 𝗮̀ 𝗹𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗽𝗲...
And above all to improve, this Sunday, at GG 💚👊 pic.twitter.com/tZmNhwlccO
– AS Saint-Etienne (@ASSEofficiel) May 27, 2022
“We are at half-time of this play-off.
We have to find the springs so that, psychologically, our team is armed for this last fight.
It's going to be played out a lot in people's heads, ”assured the one who had miraculously saved Toulouse from the descent in 2016. He will find opposite Jean-Marc Furlan, a serious client who sports on his CV the record of four accessions in Ligue 1 – three with Troyes (2005, 2012, 2015) and one with Brest (2019) – and who hopes for a new end in apotheosis for his third season on the Auxerre bench.
“We have to succeed in putting the players in a bubble”
“It's not a great result.
The players struggled to adapt to a Ligue 1 rhythm, ”he nevertheless conceded Thursday after the match, despite a reaction in the second period and a late-game goal from Gaëtan Perrin who kept hope alive.
Jean-Marc Furlan knows in any case the mission that awaits his team, even more with the away goal rule, which counts double in the event of a tie: "You win away, or you make 2-2 to pass.
We have to show our values, have fun.
What is very important is to display our collective qualities.
Here, everyone wants Ligue 1 and we also dream of it, but we have to succeed in putting the players in a bubble.
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