St-Etienne - OM (2-2) | Post-match reactions from Mandanda, Sarr, Sanson, Germain & Payet
Steve Mandanda : «Moving forward»
"I have a little pain behind the thigh. I don’t know exactly what it is, but we will do the exams on Saturday and we will know more. I felt a little stretch right away so it was better that left the match when I did.”
"It's a shame, because we got into the game and we had good control. We lost a little bit in the second half. It made the match a bit more difficult. We would have obviously preferred to win, but we did not lose. A draw was not our original objective, but we keep moving forward. "
Bouna Sarr: «Dealing with the disappointment»
“We are disappointed in the second half because we seemed to relax. Even then, we had opportunities, especially at the end, but we couldn’t find the winner. Especially at this point in the season, that is a disappointment.”
"We made poor collective effort in the second half, which made us vulnerable. That allowed Saint-Etienne in the game, especially after they equalized. We can only blame ourselves. We had plenty of chances to win this game."
“Our priority in a match is to score one more goal than the opponent, so even though we didn’t win, we didn’t lose.”
"It's neither a good point nor a bad one. We will have to see how Sunday goes in the league, hoping that our competitors perform poorly."
Morgan Sanson : «Not a good result»
“This is not a good result for us, we came to win. We disappointed and frustrated with it, especially considering the chances we had at the end of the match. On the whole, we would have liked to do better, but we can not always be at the top. In the past, we might have lost that game, so we have to make a positive difference. This is a point that will need to be improved in the coming weeks.”
"It's a bit disappointing, especially the second half. Apart from Hamouma's strike in the beginning, they did not have many opportunities. We will try again against Braga (in the Europa League on Thursday) and put a a few more things together. We cannot let our heads drop. There have been positive things from this game and we will retain that for the coming weeks."
"I saw Bouna (Sarr) break free so I made my run. We know each other’s tendencies, he has a capacity of speed and an good cross delivery. He saw me and managed to put the ball where I needed it. I had time to square it and put it past the keeper."
Valère Germain : «We weren't 100%»
We managed the game well even though we did not do enough to win. We played well for 20-25 minutes. After that, we relaxed a bit. We did not do enough to win this match and when the score was 2 to 1, we were susceptible to give up an equalizer and that's what happened, unfortunately.
"It's always the danger when we think we have all the cards in our hands, that we can win in the match. We were only one goal ahead, and we did not protect it. In the end, we could have taken the advantage but we did not do enough individually to take the 3 points. We have a lot of qualities in the group but when we are not 100%, unfortunately, we do not win. We know that if we want to get something, it will have to be a complete performance until the end of the season. Unfortunately, we did not do that today.”
"We are in good shape right now. We have won many games, so when we do not win we are disappointed. We are a little frustrated, disappointed with the result today and our collective performance was just not good enough to win.”
“Of course we would like to allow fewer goals but if we win all 6-4 games or 5-4 until the end of the season it will be fine. Unfortunately, when we allow two goals and we do not score more than two, it's hard to win. We will have to work a little more on it. We will try to allow fewer goals to win our matches."
Dimitri Payet : «A little reminder to order»
"These are two dropped points in our journey. There is room for improvement, we did not perform to the level we wanted to. The draw is a little reminder to order. This shows us that every weekend, nothing will be easy. We must always be at the same level. As soon as we go down a little, we are reminded to order. I do not think it's physical, it's a match you could win.”
"Saint-Etienne took its chance. They were helped by us being poorer than usual individually and also by some small mistakes. We allowed them two goals. It's not fatigue, because many players had not played in Coupe de France earlier this week. We can have our off days like anyone, but this was a game we could win."
