Didier Deschamps did not hide his satisfaction in front of the press on Sunday night. But as he said in response to one question: "We won't be opening the champagne, we have a match in three days time".
Didier, you must be very satisfied tonight…
Wednesday’s qualification (against Toulouse) did us a lot of good and gave the team a lot of confidence. The ground was behind us but we also did everything that we had to in order to gain the support of the public. Last week I was supposed to be down and out, I’m not going to start hitting the heights today, but I am satisfied. We finished off the week in style.
How do you explain the difference between this side and the one that lost last week-end at Montpellier?
It’s the life of the team. The adversity was not the same either. We cannot control everything nor can our opponents. But, when the team plays like they did tonight we have more chances of winning than losing. We have matches every three das and the players are not robots, but, since the start of 2010 there has been a lot more positives than negatives.
Is this match going to be a reference for you?
I don’t like that idea. It was a good performance with a lot of movement and great technique. The players made a collective effort and scored five goals. Diawara even popped up to send in the cross for Mamad’… There are evenings like that. Everyone did their job well, but as I often say, you need to retain that frame of mind and team spirit. When it is there, we can overcome any obstacle. It’s not going to be easy as we have a lot of matches to play. The qualification did us good and allowed us to build up our confidence but we will have to hold firm in the face of this busy schedule.
You don’t like to single out individual performances, but Hatem Ben Arfa was incredible tonight!
Yes, as were others. He has the talent, I have never said otherwise. It is said that I don’t play him, but if he keeps putting in performances like that he will have more chances of being out on the pitch. He also put in a lot of effort when he didn’t have the ball. All the better, as it helps everyone out. We qualified as a team on Wednesday and we won as a team tonight.
The title race is back on after the week-end’s results?
The wind changes direction frequently in Marseille. Last week we were down and out so I’m not going to start talking about the title now. There are still a lot of matches to be played, even if a number of team’s dropped points this week-end. We will have to take as many points as possible in February and March, because the final sprint home starts in April. For the time being we’re too far behind, even if we did pull back three points on the others this week-end. That is good news.
Will you be making a lot of changes for the cup game on Wednesday?
Lucho and Hatem are suspended. But, it won’t be a second choice side as that would be an insult to the players who are out on the pitch. There will be some turn-over which will allow others to play. But it doesn’t mater what the starting line-up looks like, we aren’t going to play to not qualify, even if it would make things difficult in view of the schedule. The eleven players who start on Wednesday will have the desire and intention to qualify.
