This Sunday evening, RC Lens and Paris Saint-Germain faced off in the round of 32 of the Coupe de France. This was the last match of 2024 for both teams, who ended the game in a 1-1 draw. Qualification came down to penalties, and in this game it was Paris goalkeeper Matvey Sofanov who proved decisive, saving two consecutive shots. Paris are now through to the last 16. Les Sang et Or midfielder Adrien Thomasson spoke to beIN SPORTS about his team’s performance:
Adrien Thomasson: “There was a lot of disappointment tonight”.
How close did Lens come?
Yes, it wasn’t far off, especially after taking the lead and then conceding an avoidable goal. After that, it’s all about penalties. We know it’s a bit of a lottery, even if we’d prepared for them. That’s how it is, there’s a lot of disappointment tonight. Particularly in the second half, we created some big chances and perhaps deserved to score a second goal. But we’ll have to build on that.
When you score, do you relax?
No, I don’t think so. We have an experienced group and team. You have to be strong mentally for 5/10 minutes, especially after you’ve scored. Unfortunately, we took the goal that hurt us, but despite that, we’re back on track. We’d have liked to have scored before the penalty shoot-out, but after that, we’ve got a good keeper in front of us and we’ve got to give him credit tonight. We’re going to have to rely on that to make the details go our way.
Is there anything positive to take from this?
We lost there 1-0 at the park, so we’d already learned a few lessons from that game. I think there were some improvements in that game. We’ll be playing in January and it’s up to us to get a good rest, but that would be disappointing.
