The firefighter on duty is in good shape. One might almost write in Olympic form. Reinvigorated by the air of the Massif Central, Pascal Dupraz, who arrived in Saint-Étienne in December, restored color to the Greens, who are no longer relegated for the first time since September 12. To comment on his team’s third consecutive victory, the former miracle worker on the side of Evian TG and Toulouse, did not spare Pascal Gastien, his counterpart in Clermont following a stunning success (2-1) this Sunday. “I’m happy to have shown Pascal Gastien that a mountaineer might get his team to play. He’s a great boy but he’s not fair play. He’s always squealing all the time, it’s annoying.”
A few moments earlier, still at a press conference, Pascal Dupraz had made a slightly ironic comment: “It’s good to have beaten the pawn to this Clermont team which claims the precepts of Pep Guardiola ».
In short, the third victory of Dupraz since his arrival in Forez has not only an arithmetic value. He allowed his technical boss to put the dots back on the i’s with an opponent he had met two years ago when he was coaching Stade Malherbe de Caen in Ligue 2. “Between the player [NDLR Johan Gastien, le fils de l’entraîneur] who cries all the time and the father who teaches everyone, at times it gets drunk. He must stop fantasizing, Pascal (Gastien). He is a brilliant trainer who always cries…”, he said following a draw (0-0) between the two teams on December 20, 2019.