After the victory of La Roche-sur-Yon against Bordeaux in the 16th of the Coupe de France, we were able to talk with Malika Bousseau, the satisfied and ambitious French coach for the rest of the season.

Malika Bousseau - We wanted to go beyond the 16th. In any case since I came back with the girls, it's true that we always stumbled in the 16th and against Bordeaux. So, it's good to be able to go in the eighth and what was important was to be able to make a match against a D1. It was also important to know where we were. And then, here is the Cup so I hold it. There is the championship but I want this year the Cup is really "a Cup", there is animation next, there is really another fervor than the championship.

Football hearts - Compared to last year's Bordeaux - ESOF final round, today's roles were reversed?
MB - Yes, they are pretty much in the same area where we should be and then I want to say that it's two teams playing ball, so a little in the same philosophy so it's true that we are two teams that are alike. There, the roles were reversed, we were the little squeaker and they the team of D1, with two different objectives. A team that plays the top of the table in D2, and then a team that plays the maintenance like us last year.

CDF - In preparing for this match, have you tried to ignore last year's match?
M.B - Abstraction, yes and no. I think when the draw was done, the girls thought about it. On the other hand it was not necessary that it is that which prevails so it was an additional motivation (...) especially those who lived the match. After, it's been twice that they eliminate us too so it was also necessary to break this spiral there so there was also that.

CDF - At the beginning of the match, we had the feeling that on the side of your team there was perhaps a little fear, of waiting too ...
M.B - Yes and then the level between D1 and D2. In D1, it goes faster, it's more aggressive. And we had trouble raising our level of play and especially to go faster especially in the middle. We took a bit expensive in the middle on the first half. In second, we could get some balls, and it's true that it was a little better in the second half on it.

CDF - After the break, we saw your team play higher on the pitch ...
M. B - We went to get a little higher, and tighten a little higher. And then especially tighten to two, three and not one by one leaving less space.

CDF - Before the match, we saw you take the time to discuss with Julie Pasquereau the first scorer of the match ...
M.B - All! I take the time to tell everyone a little word, be it Julie or someone else. I put a point [of honor], that's my way of doing things. It is true that before each game, I try to tell them a little word to each or by line, by complementarity to be able to give them the two or three instructions but in individual.

CDF - For the rest, there is the goal of the Cup. In the league, you're finally not that far from Lille. It's an ambitious end of the season?
M.B - Lille is always ahead with five points. We will have to make sure not to lose at all and hope ... Hope is that Lille is losing. But yes, we run after Lille, who is better placed than us. It's up to us to stay behind, put pressure on them and then we never know, maybe at some point, it's going to rock somewhere. To us first, before taking care of Lille, I think that we make a clear fault on this second phase.

CDF - Your team is currently going through a series of victories after a complicated start to the season. What do you attribute to this change of face of the team?
M.B - I think there is the problem when you come down from D1 to D2. We still lost six players between stops and two / three starts (...) so we had to readjust the team even if we did not recruit much. It was a choice, precisely to make young people play like Lisa [Fragoli], Anaïs [Pugnetti], the youngest, Mélanie Roux ...

That's a choice, it took a while for the girls to come back and [understand] that the D2 was much stronger so you had to climb, it was not going to come alone. I think the girls had a little time to adapt to that.