Philippe Clément, ASM coach: “We need a very great Monaco to win”
“Eighth in L1, AS Monaco are six points behind third place Marseille. Can a final victory in the Europa League therefore become the best means of access to the Champions League?
Yes, but it’s difficult when you see all the clubs still in contention in this Europa League. It is an even heavier path. As I’ve said for the past few weeks, we focus on every game that’s ahead of us, and we don’t look that far because it doesn’t help us. We are in a situation where you have to look at yourself. My players did good things in Marseille (1-0, last Sunday) and showed that we had a lot of possibilities to win against good teams.
During the group stage, Niko Kovac rotated a lot between L1 and Europe. After succeeding him on the bench in January, do you approach this competition with the same ideas?
It depends on the players and their physical condition. For example, we cannot start with Benoît (Badiashile) tomorrow wouldn’t be smart after his injury (the defender started in Marseille on Sunday after suffering a hamstring injury on January 9). I always have to make good decisions to build a team ready to win games.
“Wissam (Ben Yedder) has managed the efforts he has made in recent weeks well
Wissam Ben Yedder was substituted most often during the group stage. Will his situation change?
We’ll see tomorrow… Wissam has managed his efforts well over the past few weeks. Can he play six matches in a row in three weeks, and almost every minute? We’ll see, it depends on how he plays and how his body reacts after games.
Do you think Monaco is preferred against Braga?
For me it’s 50-50 because Braga are a very good team that haven’t lost at home this season in Europe, with a lot of attacking qualities and wingers who score goals. They also have a lot of power in recovery, it’s a well-balanced team. We need a very big Monaco to win and we will try. »