“It’s been a hell of an armada”

Olivier Dall’Oglio (coach of Montpellier, after the 5-2 defeat at PSG on Saturday night) : “We are disappointed. We held on, we made a good start. We knew we were going to suffer, that it would be very complicated, and it was. We were disciplined, united until a certain moment, at the end of the first period which hurt us a little and the start of the second, we did not come back well. We can have regrets on losses of ball a little easy. We mustn’t give too many balls against this team… It’s already complicated to recover it. We were able to do better on this aspect. Afterwards, the satisfactions are in terms of respecting the instructions, no worries. But we need to be more rigorous. (…) To play long, to clear to clear, that does not interest me, first thing. It’s the balance between long and short game that interests me. Technically, I think we can do better. We can take the example of PSG, which plays fairly simple but very clean football. Sometimes players forget that simplicity is a strength. (…) There were sometimes guilty hesitations (in defense). We must take example from the defenders of PSG on the attention they put, the determination and the strength in the duels. This kind of match is also to remember that nothing is certain.

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(On PSG) I felt a lot of connections and bonds between the players. There is a real desire to play together. When you have players of this level who want to play together, that’s quite an armada… They’re working together too, for now, and that makes the difference. This is perhaps what was missing in previous seasons. I felt, from the sidelines or seeing them on video, that there is a real determination from PSG to play together. Neymar? He is a boy who likes to touch the ball, caress it, before triggering something. Automatically, it’s difficult for the players opposite… Tactically, he didn’t destroy anything, I had no anti-Neymar plan, but it’s the individual, his talent that makes the difference. When he is connected like that, he is a very high level player. And as he is surrounded by other very high level players, it pays off… I wish him to keep a certain continuity.”

Statements taken at a press conference