Toulouse FC has restored its imagein this 2021-2022 season: the first team has found the league 1the U17s were crowned French champions, and the girls can finish the job, this Sunday, June 26, 2022. Facing Monaco, at 1 p.m. on the ground annex 5 of the Stadium, they have the opportunity to validate their ticket for the D2, two years after leaving.

“The last step, the hardest to climb”

As a symbol, they passed the baton. Thursday, June 23, Philippe Montanier’s press conference ended, and he gave way to Antoine Gerard, coach of the women’s first team. The technician was accompanied by his captain, Clementine Dias Veloso. A few days after the first round of the women’s D2 entry jump-off, in Monaco, which ended on the score of 2-2. A draw snatched in the last minutes by the Violets.

“We prefer having gone 2-2 away in the first leg… We managed to get a good result, without having to play a good match, in any case, not a match of the level shown by the team all season. But this last step to climb is the hardest. It comes at the end of a long road.”

Two behemoths face to face

In R1, the troops of Antoine Gérard, who have led the women since the summer of 2020 after having coached the U13s, U15s and U19s, have exploded the counters. 18 games, 18 wins, 101 goals scored, 5 conceded : a thunderous season… but an opponent who managed to score twice. “Monaco is a very solid team, which has shown its ambitions since the start of the season”, testifies the coach. “We found ourselves faced with the surprise of seeing a very high level of opposition last week “.

For his part, number 17, who provides the rear guard of Toulouse, spoke of a Monegasque team “which remains quite offensive, which wants to move forward. She don’t back down and a certain mental strength, because we lead 1-0 at home, and she manages to equalize and then lead afterwards…”

Finish the job

Clémentine Dias Veloso is having a superb season. But on a personal level, other lights went green, Tuesday, June 21: “I was admitted to the competitions and I am a school teacher. It’s something that I have been leading for several years in parallel with the foot. And when you are a captain, you have an educational duty”. And also a mission: that of ensuring total support.

“I saw that we were more and more followed. It’s super gratifying. I wanted to thank the people who followed us on the networks and who also came to see us from time to time, and I thank for the future the people who will be present on Sunday. And of course we are waiting for this 12th player on the pitch…”

His coach takes the opportunity to recall that in Monaco, during the first leg, “the injured players who were not called up accompanied us. In the key moments of the match, they carried the group to the side. The captain adds. “If they hadn’t been there, I’m not sure we would have experienced the same game. »

The D2… before seeing even more grandiosity?

The mission reassembled in D2 is one step away from success. The 26 players in the group, “24 of whom have passed through the U19 category, that’s a lot of players attached to the values ​​of the club”, would then approach the elite of women’s football in France. Their last trip to this level dates from 2012-2013. “Clementine talked about D1, it was mentioned, not necessarily in the short term, because it takes time to build a balanced project, explained Antoine Gérard. “But the club is behind us on these goals. He also received the support of Philippe Montanier, who “will try to come and see us on Sunday before leaving for Navata”.

Toulouse FC – AS Monaco
D2 accession play-off return match
Sunday, June 26, 2022, 1 p.m.
Annex pitch 5, Toulouse Stadium

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