The AS Saint-Étienne was defeated this Saturday against the Racing Club Strasbourg Alsace (3-1), a week after his victory in the derby against Olympique Lyonnais (2-1). At the end of the meeting, Dennis Appiah spoke about this defeat. Here are his comments from the newspaper “Ici Saint-Étienne Loire”.

Dennis Appiah, ASSE defender, said: “A return to reality? Not necessarily. We quickly realized that we had a dangerous move in front of us. Opposite, there was a nice team, which had not lost in ten games. We started the game by leading 1-0, but unfortunately it was the opponent who opened the score with a very good goal. It was a little weird, there was some sort of euphoria. We have failed to impose our usual pace and intensity. We equalized, but then we got the impression that they had a lot of dangerous situations because they managed to get out of our dry cleaning and to finish their actions. While we, even when we came out of the dry cleaner, did not finish our actions. It was a little hot for us, that’s where the difference lies. "

He added: “After that, we also had our opportunities. When we came back in the second half, we had the opportunity to go ahead, but the opponent made the difference because they may have had one or two more opportunities and most importantly, they were more realistic. "

Regarding the difference in intensity between this match and the one against Lyon, Dennis Appiah explains: “The hardest part of high-level football is to keep up with the good performances. After climbing very high in emotions, it is always complicated to go down and chain. We try to digest as much as possible, but it is on this point that we must move forward: know how to manage our emotions to get even stronger again from the next game.”

He goes on to say: “I am frustrated and disappointed that I have not scored on our situations, because we have had them. That’s what I’m upset about: we get opportunities but we don’t realize them.”

Dennis Appiah concludes: “That’s what I said at first: they may have one or two more opportunities, but they score. That’s all the difference. They’re on a super dynamic with 10 games without defeat, too. This season is difficult, you have to be very strong behind and ahead. But I think that collectively, we are fighting to maintain ourselves. The race to maintain will be long and stressful, but we don’t let go. We will go home, rest, analyze this game, work well this week to show more energy in Monaco.”