During his press conference at the Stade Saint-Symphorien, Lucien Favre spoke about the encounter and its turning point, the red card given to Pierre Lees-Melou that the Swiss coach struggled to accept.

Coach, how do you analyse this match?

We had a relatively good start to the game. We could have scored. We had a great chance from which we should have been more reactive. On certain balls we need to beat the opponent to be able to create chances. The red? It’s a bit surprising… I don’t think that there is a red card there… no, it’s not possible to have something like this.

 

Do you think that this match deserved to see 9 yellows and one red?

No.

Do you think that you left too many spaces between the lines after that?

With one player less, what do you want us to do? It’s complicated, you can’t press, you are obliged to wait for them. That was the only solution at 0-0. Metz played with wing backs, so to get past their 3 man defence wasn’t possible for us. At 10 against 11, it wasn’t too bad, we got back to 1-1. What frustrates me is that we conceded the second too quickly afterwards.

The sending off is clearly the turning point of the game…

All matches come down to small details. Until now, we were on a good run. It comes down to nothing, the red card disturbed our defensive organisation and especially offensively. A red card, if it is deserved, that can happen, but there, I don’t think that there is a red card.

In the second half, only Srarfi managed to cause any danger...

Yes, we needed that, his dribbles. On the whole, our team lacked movement.

We saw a Balotelli who was struggling slightly...

That too… with his slight physical problems, he hasn’t trained much in the last couple of weeks. In football, there are no miracles.

With the injuries and now the cards and suspensions which have come, that adds up…

That’s the way it is. What is a shame tonight, to be honest is the red. That misrepresents things. I rarely get annoyed but there, really… there is a red for nothing, yellows for nothing… honestly…

At the end of this good run, what does the run that you have had until Toulouse leave behind?

That we need to start another. I have been saying it since the start of the season, even if some people don’t want to listen, this season will be very very tough. Because of the reasons that I have already spoken about on several occasions, with also injuries that are piling up. But that’s the way it is, we will work all week and we will be there for the match against Toulouse.

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