MHSC-Angers: it's now or never for Montpellier to get back on track and get back on track

Akor Adams et le MHSC jouent très gros, ce dimanche face à Angers. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

Montpellier achève la phase aller contre Angers, ce dimanche 12 janvier (17 h 15) à La Mosson. Une rencontre pour décoller, recoller ou continuer de dilapider ses chances de maintien.

The time has come to be great. Or simply to win, to push aside the clouds and treat yourself to a bit of sunshine at the end of an afternoon that freezes you in the hope of warming up, in the standings and in your hearts. This Sunday, Montpellier HSC welcomes Angers, a candidate like them for survival, and there is a scent of extremes hanging over this match. As if this match transcended simple football to leave only one choice: live or die.

The Ligue 1 standings

This is obviously exaggerated since, whatever happens, Montpellier will neither be condemned nor saved this Sunday. But a defeat would squander their slim chances of survival even more, leaving Savanier and his teammates ten points behind SCO. And still dead last, which they will remain even in the event of a success combined with a defeat by Le Havre, due to this ball-and-chain goal difference. But a victory would maintain the possibility of a rebound.

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Cuddle therapy and bad luck

“If we still want to have hope of survival, we have to beat Angers on Sunday, finish the first half with 12 points, which is not much, and tell ourselves that we will have to do a practically European half-championship by winning one match out of two. But it is possible”, encouraged Jean-Louis Gasset this week.

In Grammont, the 71-year-old technician is working hard. Since his return on October 22, he has moved heaven and earth, worked on the physical, tested the tactics and treated the heads. He calls for something positive, adds cuddle therapy, like with Khalil Fayad this week, on the ashes of a narrow defeat in Lyon (1-0) which sums up everything.

The probable compositions of MHSC-Angers. midi libre

When the Pailladine formation is not already on vacation, like in Puy-en-Velay (4-0, Coupe de France), it sows reasons for hope. But does not collect the points, too often smashed on the wall of regrets, clumsiness or bad luck. Like in Lyon, where this miss and then this own goal by the young midfielder condensed this incorrigible bad luck.

“Good path” and “first to be placed in the building in 2025”

“We are not rewarded. This match (against OL), we have the impression that in our career we have seen many scenarios, but that this one is still unprecedented. So I told them that it will pass, that it will come and that we must continue”, asserts Gasset, convinced that his men “are not far away”.

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This is even more true at La Mosson where, since the arrival of the coach with the cap, MHSC has demonstrated its progress by dominating Brest (3-1) and holding on to Lille then Nice (2-2). A “good path” to follow in order to invent an after. Far from the controversies of the end of 2024, the mini-psychodrama Téji Savanier and the twists of fate of 2025, with this broken thigh of Nikola Maksimovic.

“There were times when we weren't ready, but I have the impression that we are to face a match like the one on Sunday”, Gasset supports, while the receptions of Saint-Étienne and Le Havre will then come, in March and April, other crucial meetings. Before that, there is Angers, “the first stone in the building to be laid in 2025. Together.” It's now or never.