Igor Tudor (OM) before the match in Lens: “I have great feelings”

“What do you keep as memories of the first leg (0-1), on October 22? Regrets ?
I have no regrets, there are matches we could have won, but we can’t win them all. Sometimes we also won complicated matches at the last minute, football does not always validate merit. We have to look ahead, focus on the remaining matches. The first leg against Lens was one of our best performances of the season. There is no question of improving this or that point. If we do the same type of service again, I will be very, very happy. Let’s be 100%!

“We will see who will emerge victorious from this clash, but I think it will be us”

What meeting do you expect? To enormous pressure from the opponent from the start? Knowing that outside, OM is often sovereign…
This is going to be a great match for the public to watch. They will put the pressure on entry, as they are used to doing at home. I have great respect for the opponent, they have their qualities and we have ours. We will see who will emerge victorious from this clash, but I think it will be us. Lens and OM have the same energy, the same desire to produce attacking football, with differences with or without the ball. They are pressing a little more in the zone, and with the ball, we are looking for different things. But like us, they make a lot of runs, they have a lot of aggression, a lot of fluidity in the game. Loïs Openda is a very good player, who attacks deep, we will try to be very attentive to his calls and his departures in counter-attacks.

Do you consider this a final for second place? Can you also estimate at the end of the match that a draw would be a good operation?
I never said the word “final”. It’s a big game, the group trained this week like they had never trained before. I saw twenty players who all want to play, it does not make it easy for me to make my composition! I have great feelings, I see desire, application, concentration in the sessions. It is something very positive.

What do you think of your counterpart Franck Haise?
He is the coach for whom I have the most esteem, one of the best coaches in the Championship. If I had to release a coach after my first season in L1, it’s him. »