The Brest coach gives his feelings at a press conference before facing Barça on Tuesday in Catalonia.
Undefeated in four days of the Champions League, Brest will have “everything to gain” Tuesday (9 p.m.) against FC Barcelona, said his coach Éric Roy on Monday, lucid about his team’s chances against a “European ogre”. “If we came here putting pressure on ourselves, even without having ten points, but five, we would be wrong. It’s a very exciting challenge, you’d almost have to pinch yourself to realize, in relation to the history of this club, its means. We have everything to gain from this match (…) Everything is possible in football, and we will try to play our luck to the fullest”declared Éric Roy at a press conference on the eve of the meeting.
“It’s simply incredible. A year or two ago, it would have been difficult to imagine that we would come to face Barça, that three thousand of our supporters would make the trip. I think it’s a dream they couldn’t have imagined. It’s a chance to compete against these kinds of clubs. We saw what they were able to achieve against Bayern and Real for example, and it’s better not to watch too much otherwise we would have stayed in Brest.he said with a broad smile.
Pierre Lees-Melou out until 2025
The Breton coach called on his players to “try to be actors, to enjoy the present moment but without presenting yourself as an expiatory victim”. “It may not be enough, but we will try”he added. “We have to try to come up with things. We want to put on a show, the question is whether Barça will give us the opportunity to do so (…) Let’s already be at our level, and if the team opposite is too strong we will admit it and we will congratulate them”he continued.
Asked about the two Catalan missteps in La Liga (defeat against Real Sociedad, draw in Vigo), Éric Roy believes that the leader in the Spanish championship standings “will want to react, like a slightly injured animal, which wants to respond to the demands of its trainer”. “If we expect them to look down on us, I think we’re wrong”he explained. The former Nice and Marseille player also confirmed the serious injury of his playing master Pierre Lees-Melou which should not be “not see the field again in 2024”and the absence Tuesday of young Soumaïla Coulibaly.
