The 126th Stéphanois derby was won by AS Saint-Étienne against Olympique Lyonnais, on a score of 2-1. The Greens have mastered their score perfectly, despite some questionable arbitral decisions. At the end of the match, Lucas Stassin, author of a double, spoke about this victory at important stakes.
The Stéphanois player praised the collective performance of his team: “I think the public can be proud of the whole team. Today, we made a big performance from the beginning to the end. We were solid and we deserved this victory. Frankly, we can dedicate it to fans.”
Stassin also mentioned the exceptional atmosphere at Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium: “It’s amazing, frankly. When you play football and you manage to please people like that… And I know that at every goal here, people come down, they go crazy… it makes me happy, really.”
Asked about the interruption of the game following a jet of projectiles from the stands, Stassin said: “I don’t know what happened, but what’s for sure is that it’s the players, the referee, the staff… we all have to be protected. So I don’t know exactly what happened, but it’s clear that it’s a gesture that must not exist.”
The Stéphanois player also commented on his red card, obtained after an altercation with Corentin Tolisso: “I saw the pictures. I thought he would come back, cancel the red and put a yellow on me… but, well, it’s his decision, and in any case, it has to be respected. Maybe it’s a turning point in the game, but that’s how it is. He’s made up his mind, we have to deal with it. It’s a chance for me to have been able to continue, because we know if we had finished at 10, it could have changed everything. I went to tell Corentin Tolisso I’m sorry. It’s not a gesture I wanted to make. Anyway, I didn’t mean to hurt him. I didn’t mean to hurt him, I just wanted the ball back. So here you go, I’m sorry.”
Finally, Stassin highlighted the importance of the points obtained and the stakes of the last four championship games to ensure the maintenance of the ASSE: “The points are super important. Four games left. But as I said, if we play them all with the intensity and the way we showed today, I think we can still go get points. Of course we’re partying, we know it was a big game, we took the 3 points, we’re happy, we’re celebrating. But we must quickly re-focus on the end of the season, on these last four games that will be super important. We celebrate, we enjoy it, and the supporters too. It’s important to give them hope, and now we stay focused on the end of the season. We’ll have to give everything and hope to get hold of it.”