Marseille's keeper confides with OM Match before the game between OM and Lille. As always, he is confident and is not worried by these high pressure encounters.

Steve, we’ve had to wait until round 33, and the victory over Metz (2-1), before seeing OM in third place. You muyst be satisfied …
Certainly , but the most important thing will be to still be there at the end of the season. Everything is moving along very quickly at the moment. The teams that are fighting to achieve the same objectives are all very close together.

You are coming up against a very good Lille side that beat Nancy last week. What do you think about Claude Puel’s team?
They are a very good team who are defensively solid. The proof is that they have the best defensive record in the League away from home, having only conceded 12 goals on their travels since the start of the season.  It’s up to us to try and find a way through and take all three points.

What about your colleague at Lille  : Tony Sylva ?
He is a very good keeper. I don’t know him personally, but just looking at his performances you can only have a positive opinion. The French League is lucky enough to have a number of great keepers and he is one of them.

Lille are coming to the Vélodrome without too much to play for. The pressure will be on your shoulders. OM must win the game. Is this a positive factor for you?
Of course. We have to deal with pressure every weekend, so we are used to it. We know how to approach these games, depending on our opponents. But when you play for Marseille, you have to win every game. We know that every opponent we come up against has that extra bit of motivation and wants to beat us.

How do you explain the fact that OM manage to deal with tthe big teams more easily?
I can’t give you an answer to that question. If we knew then we wouldn’t have lost the games where we were the favourites. You just have to look at our last two home games, we lost 1-0 to Sochaux then we breezed through the game against Lyon, dominating and winning by two clear goals. That’s just how football is…

You will obviously be wanting to play in the Champions League again. With only 5 games to go before the end of the season are you thinking about it a lot …
It was fantastic playing in that competition, so yes we obviously want to be playing in it again. There are five games to go, we have to win them all and then our hard work will be rewarded!

The full interview can be found in OM Match OM-Lille available at no cost at the Vélodrome on Sunday.