Losing to Troyes in the league did not attract criticism from the media. On the one hand, because Troyes is a relegation team, everyone knows that relegation team is the most difficult to play, so it is nothing abnormal to lose to this team that is not as strong as Metz. On the other hand, it is naturally because compared to this ordinary league, people are more concerned about the quarterfinals of the French Cup with Lyon - three days after the game against Troyes, Metz will challenge the current Ligue 1 overlord Lyon away.

That is the game that Metz fans pay the most attention to - there is no reason not to pay attention to it in such an important game.

The media first started paying attention to this game since they came out of the match. Metz's local media believed that this game might be the most important game of Metz's entire season, while Lyon's local media thought they had drawn a good draw. Perhaps Metz's current ranking has improved a lot compared to last season, which made many people fall into the glasses, but Lyon is not afraid at all. Because in the league this season, Lyon defeated Metz by 4:1 and 4:0, both of which were defeated Metz by a big score. Psychologically, Lyon has a completely advantage. Other national media are more concerned about another cup match held on the same day - Paris Saint-Germain vs. Lille. This game is considered a "strong dialogue", because anyone can win, and anyone can book.

In the match between Metz and Lyon, if nothing unexpected happens, Lyon will definitely be qualified to advance to the semi-finals.

"The factors that are unfavorable to Metz are also the home court of Lyon. Gerland Stadium is a well-known devilish home court. Any team will feel huge pressure when fighting on that stadium. Even Galaxy battleships like Real Madrid have lost 0:3 to Lyon at Gerland Stadium this season."

This guy is talking about the Champions League group stage this season. Real Madrid and the enemy were divided into a group. In the first game, Real Madrid challenged Lyon away, but Karu, Juninho and Vertote scored 0:3 for one goal each, and lost completely. The luxurious Galaxy battleship was beaten to no temper.

Even AC Milan, who finally eliminated Lyon in the Champions League quarter-finals, failed to defeat Lyon at the Gerland Stadium, and the two sides tied 0:0. In the end, AC Milan eliminated Lyon by relying on 3:1 back to home.

Real Madrid and AC Milan are both one of the best teams on the European continent. Their two teams are the two clubs that have won the Champions League most times. It is not just such two teams that failed to conquer the Gerland Stadium. Not to mention Metz, who is completely different from these two teams.

After Metz arrived in Lyon, they went to the Gerland Stadium for adaptation training. Fernandez was fearless in the pre-match press conference: "Of course we know that Lyon is strong, but that's football - there is no requirement that those with strong strength will win. We also have a chance."

A reporter mentioned the two games that made Metz very embarrassed: "But Mr. Fernandez, your team lost to Lyon by big score in both league games this season. Will this have some impact on your players..."

"I don't think there will be any impact." Fernandez was very tough at the press conference today and was unwilling to show weakness in front of the Lyons. "That's the league, and the cup is different from the league, because after losing two games, there are thirty-six games. I think our ranking in the league is enough to illustrate all this. The cup is different, the cup is a single knockout match, and there is no future. If you lose here, you will lose the whole season. I think my players will have different mentality and fighting spirit when facing this cup."

Fernandez's attitude surprised many people - does this head coach Metz really have any secret weapon that can beat Lyon? Otherwise, how did he get this confidence?

Lyon has basically won the championship ahead of schedule this season. After 34 rounds of the league, Lyon, who played one game less, has accumulated 75 points, and Bordeaux ranked second. They also played one game less and accumulated 61 points, and the difference between the two sides reached 14 points. With four rounds left in the league and five games each, this 14-point difference can be declared that Lyon won the championship ahead of schedule. If Bordeaux wants to reverse, it is only theoretically possible, but Lyon is in a good state now, and it is impossible for him to lose five consecutive games in the league.

Since the league championship has basically been won, Lyon can naturally focus all his energy on the competition for the cup. Does anyone think there are too many champions? Why not be able to become the double champion of the Hull Cup in the league?

After this analysis, Metz had no chance to defeat Lyon.

The last time they eliminated Marseille at Verodem Stadium was considered a lucky draw, just luck. Or Menez's sudden outbreak, but football matches cannot always rely on the sudden outbreak of a certain player... Fernandez did not explain to the media, and this matter could not be explained. In fact, rather than saying that he has the confidence to defeat Lyon, he has the determination to defeat Lyon. This is the case with football matches. If you don't even have the determination, why should you participate in such a game? Be eliminated and go home in advance.

After Fernandez left, Lyon's head coach gerard_houllier came to the reporters and answered the reporter's questions.

Like Fernandez, the Lyon coach also expressed confidence in winning the game.

"I respect Mr. Fernandez very much, but I want to say that we will be the final winner in this game."

The head coach who once coached Liverpool and helped Liverpool win the "five championships", left Liverpool because of his poor record and returned to his home country France to coach Lyon and replaced Lyon's former coach Paul Legon. He just took office in his first season and led Lyon to successfully defend the league championship. It was the time to be proud.

Later, the media interpreted Fernandez's performance at the press conference as a psychological warfare - trying to create some interference for Lyon through this confident performance, so that they do not understand Metz's true intentions, or simply to inspire the morale of their players. Of course, the head coach must tell his subordinates to have the confidence to defeat their opponents, otherwise how can they lead the team?

Players from both sides naturally have to be interviewed by reporters before the game.

Compared with coach Hollier, Lyon's captain Juninho is very calm: "Mess is a very strong team, we must give our all. The result of the game? No, I predict this. I only know that as long as we give our all, the final result will not be bad."

Although calm, this Brazilian is still very confident in defeating Metz.

Ribery was a little unfair. Facing the microphones and cameras of many reporters, he smiled and said, "I like Gerland very much because we had very good memories here last season. Especially this friend of mine..."

As he said that, he pulled Chu Zhongtian over, hugged his shoulder and asked, "Is that right, Chu?"

After asking, he winked at Chu Zhongtian.

Chu Zhongtian knew what that meant, so he nodded: "Yes. I have wonderful memories here. The first goal I scored for Metz and the first goal that a Chinese player in the Ligue 1 was here, in the game against Lyon."

Ribery patted him on his shoulder and signaled him to say it well.

"So I'm looking forward to this game here," Chu Zhongtian continued. "I've been looking forward to it since I learned that the opponent is Lyon."

Ribery gave a thumbs up and took the conversation: "Don't worry about us, ladies and gentlemen. I promise tomorrow will be a wonderful game!"

After the reporter left, Ribery patted Chu Zhongtian's back and laughed: "It's so beautiful, Chu! Did you see the expressions on the faces of those reporters? They are even more exciting than tomorrow's game, haha!"

"It's really wonderful." Chu Zhongtian shrugged.

Just now, Ribery and Chu Zhongtian said that they scored a goal at the Gerland Stadium and had good memories. When the reporters, especially the local media reporters in Lyon, all showed surprise and confusion on their faces. Not only that, they could just read their thoughts from their expressions - "Are these two kidding?" "Are they too stressed, so they were talking nonsense?" "This must be a smoke bomb!" "They are too overestimating their abilities?" "They are too overestimating their abilities?"

Sure enough, these speculations were formalized in the newspaper the next day.

Local media in Lyon have expressed sarcasm for the words of Metz players Ribery and Chu Zhongtian.

"Ribery said he had great memories of the Gerland Stadium, and obviously we were too. And our good memories were closer. Just a while ago, Lyon just beat Metz 4-0 at this stadium. I wonder if this game is considered a 'good memory' for Ribery and Chu?"

Ribery threw the newspaper aside and said to Chu Zhongtian: "I knew they would use this game to talk about it. Humph! After today, let's see if it is a good memory!"

※※※"Don't worry about those idiot-like analysis articles!" This is Ribery's words to his teammates in the locker room at Gerland Stadium.

At this moment, it was less than half an hour before the kick-off of this extremely important game. They had just returned from the warm-up, and head coach Fernandez had not delivered his last speech before the game. Now Ribery is the protagonist in the locker room.

"Data can only represent the past, but not the present! As long as we all want to win, there is hope for this game! But as long as there is one person who doesn't want to win, the final result will definitely not be satisfactory!" Ribery warned everyone that we must work together in this game.

"We have no way out, guys! If we can't pass Lyon, then don't expect us to be able to qualify for the League Cup by relying on the French Cup! We are now ranked seventh in the league, and there are still four rounds left in the league. Don't pin your hopes on the game that has not been played yet. Play this game first, guys!"

Ribery called and retreated. It was Fernandez's turn to appear.

"I agree with Frank."

Ribery raised her chest proudly.

"We don't have to be afraid of them, even though they are really strong, we are not weak either. Before the start of this season, who could have thought that we can now be ranked seventh? This is the case with football games. As long as we go to the arena, either side is qualified to pursue victory. Now we are on the same starting line with them, boys. As long as we play to our own level, I don't think it's so difficult to win them."

"We have been practicing against Lyon for more than a week, and I believe each of you should know what you are going to do in the game." Fernandez looked at his disciples. This is the team he has spent several years of hard work, and now it has gradually taken shape. The investment of nearly 10 million euros this season must always be rewarded, right?

You should know that Metz's fiscal investment in the previous few seasons has not been so much. The 2003-2004 season was the first season for Metz to return to Class A. Their fiscal budget for all expenses throughout the season was only 20 million euros. These 20 million euros were used to maintain the club's operations, and a large part of them were used to pay the players. How much can they be left to buy people in the transfer market?

So every season, Mess can only try to get cheap, or tap potential players from his own youth army. He mentioned that the first team was trained for two or three seasons, and then he would sell it at a good price, use this money to maintain the club's operation, and then continue to dig for treasures in the youth army. How could such a team not be relegation?

This season, Molinari was forced to renew his contract by Fernandez and invested a lot of money in the transfer market. I hope the team can make a breakthrough in performance as Fernandez said. If Metz's performance is not ideal, the team will be weaned for two seasons.

Fortunately, Metz has won the seventh place in the league so far, which is considered a breakthrough. But this is not enough. If he can win the French Cup and participate in next season's UEFA Cup, Metz's fiscal budget will be much looser next season, and Fernandez will also have more funds to invest in the transfer market.

Once they do not achieve good results in the Cup, their income will shrink significantly next season. At that time, the chairman Molinari, who loves to sell people, will not be allowed to use the team's main lineup again.

So this game is actually a struggle for next season. If Metz still wants a brighter future, then this game must be won!

Fernandez did not tell the players about this, that was not the pressure that players should bear. They just needed to know how to play this game well and how to play this game well.

Fernandez summarized the lessons learned from his crushing defeat against Lyon in the first two league games. Last season, Metz and Lyon played two games, both tied, 1:1 at home and 2:2 away, at least not lost. It is amazing to be able to remain unbeaten against the Ligue 1 overlord. Logically speaking, the team has improved in lineup this season compared to last season. Their performance against Lyon cannot be said to be better, but they cannot be worse, right? The fact is that their performance is worse than last season.

Why is this?

It's a matter of mentality.

Last season, Metz players knew they were weak and put their positions right. This season, after outstanding performance, Metz team became more and more arrogant when facing Lyon, and they also started to attack against each other, but they died miserably.

Of course, this is inseparable from Fernandez.

So in this game, Fernandez redeveloped the tactics of defensive counterattack for Metz.

With Menez, Chu Zhongtian can take more defense into consideration, which will help him defend Juninho. In the second leg of the league last season, Metz was able to draw Lyon 2:2 away, and Chu Zhongtian's successful defense against Juninho was inseparable from the beginning.

Fernandez's tactics are very flexible in this game, and you can see from the formation - the one he lined up looked 451, but in fact there was no difference from 442. Menez, a player who can play both a front midfielder and a shadow striker, was used alive by Fernandez. In this game, if Chu Zhongtian's main task was to curb Juninho, then Menez would take over the task of organizing the offense.

If Chu Zhongtianteng takes action to organize the attack, Menetz will transform into a shadow striker, ambushing behind the center, looking for an opportunity to give Lyon a fatal blow.

So Menez and Chu Zhongtian's performance in this game is very important. Both of them must be very aware of the situation.

Proman continued to defend full-time. In addition to taking the penalty with a set piece in the frontcourt, Chu Zhongtian would withdraw to defend and make up for Proman's leaks.

If Fernandez allowed Chu Zhongtian to come forward to compete for the top during set-pieces, he would have scored more than two goals this season... But there is no way, individual goals are far less important than the team's victory. Chu Zhongtian knew this well, so he never expressed dissatisfaction with the head coach's decision.

Menez repeated everyone's task in this game again. He confirmed that everyone remembered it and then felt relieved.

What he can do is over so far, and the next thing it depends on how the players perform on the court... "My work is done, gentlemen." Fernandez glanced around the locker room. "It's your turn next." He pointed at his players.

※※※ Chu Zhongtian and Ribery stood in the players' corridor of Gerland Stadium one after another, waiting to appear. After they lined up, Lyon's players walked up from behind one after another. It can be seen that they seemed very relaxed, while most of Metz's players were actually a little nervous.

Just a month ago, they lost 0:4 on this court.

It's unforgettable... The scar has not healed yet, and he grinned in pain as soon as he touched it.

It is not easy to be able to muster up the courage to stand here and challenge the overlord. On the surface, everyone has their own ideas, but everyone has their own little ones. Who knows what the people around you think?

Of course, Ribery could see everyone's reaction. He shrugged at Chu Zhongtian, feeling helpless.

Chu Zhongtian did not respond to Ribery. He was familiar with this scene. He had just walked for a while and felt in a trance that he seemed to have returned to the day he challenged Chelsea for Wimbledon. His opponents and teammates were like this.

It seems that the most effective way to boost morale is never to say a long sensational word in the locker room, but to let your teammates see it with practical actions - we have hope of winning!
Chapter completed!