Last season in D2, the two teams leading their group at the end of the first leg had their climb in D1 at the end of the race. Today the calculation seems uncertain, especially in a very dense group B and where Dijon occupies sole head of the classification in mid-season. A pole position which is particularly the sign of the regularity of a team already close to the climb last season.


At the end of the first part of the season, Dijon occupies the first place of group B in D2. A leader's chair in a dense group, and particularly uncertain for the climb, while in the other pool, FC Metz already seems to have widened the gap. A density that makes many opponents to be able to drop a team from the top of the rankings.


Musical chairs


Yzeure and Grenoble have experienced this. Both teams took first place, but then had to leave points en route especially against Nancy. The players of Lorraine, become one of the most feared teams of this group B, they have not lost a match since October.

The last team to beat Nancy, it was also Dijon, in September, on behalf of the fourth day. A scathing 4-0, but Yannick Chandioux, the Dijon coach also remembers a meeting where "content" had been "less flattering than the result" against "a very good opponent".

At the end of the 6th day, Dijon was five points behind Grenoble leader then, today the players of Burgundy are three ahead of the GF38. Yzeure, first after the eighth day, is now sixth after taking a point on the last three games of the first leg. In other words, Dijon knows that the way is still long to reach the climb.


Third round


In the last two seasons, the DFCO has played each time the accession to D1, an "ambition" displayed by the club even if Yannick Chandioux recalls that there is "no obligation to ride this season." Two years ago, the fight was perhaps too unequal against Olympique de Marseille, while last season, the players led at the time by Sandrine Mathivet had failed two points from the goal, finishing just behind the Val d'Orge (now Fleury), having led the dance at the beginning of the season.

Arrived this summer at the head of the women's team of the DFCO, Yannick Chandioux inherits this goal of getting Dijon in D1 with a team cut for. Among the regularly regularized players, they are numerous to have known the higher echelon. This is particularly the case of Pauline Cousin, Emmeline Mainguy and Coline Gouineau, three players who arrived at the club this summer to strengthen the workforce.

Experienced players on which the coach relies to "pull everyone up", especially for a second part of the season that looks "a little more difficult". All matches can be complicated, especially against the 5 or 6 teams who on paper can still imagine in D1 next season. On these opponents, Yannick Chandioux does not distinguish with teams that, according to him, have all their chances, including Yzeure and Toulouse that the coach does not want to "bury".


One (only) defeat in the form of a turn


When we talk about the highlights of this first half of the season, we inevitably come back to the only defeat of Dijon on this first leg, facing Saint-Etienne on the 6th day. A home game lost (2-3) while the DFCO played more than one hour in numerical superiority.

A part where the Dijonnaises sometimes made "too obvious mistakes", paid against the Green but which also served for the continuation. In the last five games (in D2 and Coupe de France), Dijon has each time imposed without conceding goals. A strength that helped win the match at the top against Grenoble (1-0, 11th day), allowing the Burgundians to take alone the head of group B.

Grenoble, it is also the first destination of the Dijonnaises in 2018, with a 32nd final of the Coupe de France in Isère. A Cup to which Yannick Chandioux is "very attached", he who took part in some feats in Cup in boys, both as a player and coach. A "special flavor" he finds with Dijon and therefore a competition that he "takes seriously", and the desire to go as far as possible.

This poster looks like an ideal way to start the year against an opponent who can also gauge before resuming the championship the following weekend on the pitch of the ESAP Metz, a team that had given the lead to twists Dijonnaises early in the season.


To read also - Tatiana Solanet (Dijon FCO): "We think it's a little year or never"


photo: DFCO / Vinc