Hatadou Sako, goalkeeper of Metz: “No foot in the Final Four”

“Winning by six goals against Ferencvaros, awayDoes Metz have a foothold in the Final Four before the return match, next Sunday at the Arena (2 p.m.)?
We have no foot in the Final Four, we still have a return match at the Arena to play. We don’t know what can happen. Nothing is played. In the first period, we had a lot of instability in the score, which meant that we went back to the locker room with a small +2 (13-15) But we knew that even when we weren’t playing very well, we still found solutions, we were in front. We tried to keep a cool head because there was a lot of nervousness in the first half.

After the break, you left full throttle. What happened ?
We start again after the break, we take a small lead (13-18, 34th). This evening’s +6 suits us well and shows the physiognomy of the sixty minutes quite well.

With 19 saves, you held the house well behind a solid defense.
You need goalkeeper stops and it’s important to be present when the girls are in a bit of a crisis. »

Emmanuel Mayonnade (Metz coach):

“We are very happy with the result. The difficulty in this kind of in-between is that we are only at half-time (from quarter-final). I can’t jump to the ceiling, restraint is in order because the FTC can get everyone in trouble. They can come back in the race. Things can turn upside down especially against these kind of teams where there are a lot of up and downs.

There was very little consistency in the score. When FTC takes the time-out ten minutes from the end (22-27, 51st), I tell the girls that my little experience suggests that qualification is often played ten minutes from the end of the first game. And three minutes later, we are only +3 (25-28, 56th). I tell myself that it is not possible, and we switch back to +6.

The FTC is that: the rhythm, the false rhythm, sometimes their lack of technical accuracy, but their ambition means that they take incredible shots and can restart everything, all the time. Sometimes when your backs are against the wall, the energy of desperation can drive teams to do things. Now we are stable, we know where we want to go. We know that qualification for a Final Four is not as simple as that and that it is played over two matches. We will be ready. If we are able to win by six goals in Erd, why wouldn’t FTC do it in Metz? They were able to knock us down several times.

This is my leitmotif: why on a day like this, we are able to do it and why they couldn’t do it? We remained very measured in the locker room. The game is worth the candle. If there is a week in which everyone can make sacrifices on the side, it is the one to come. We are very focused. »