RLB POST EFC

Regis Le Bris reflected on what was a game of two halves, gave his thoughts on potential European qualification and praised Luke O'Nien who replaced Omar Alderete early in the game due to injury.

ANOTHER COMEBACK

"The team doesn’t lose its head – never. We always stay connected, which is really good. There are many reasons. Probably the first is the character of the players, they are sometimes emotional, but they have strong personalities. We also trust the way we play. We feel that we can control the game. You can concede a goal, it’s possible, it’s football and the opponent can do well to create something but over 100 minutes now, you still have time to come back."

BATTLING IN THE PREM

“It’s a big achievement as a club. As a manager, I’m getting more experience now. It’s so exciting to challenge the best managers in the league. One game you can win, the other game you can lose, but we feel the quality of the management and the gameplan, so, it’s a really good environment."

PERFORMANCE DESERVED THE RESULT

“I’m happy. Against a tough opponent in a tough place, the result went well. It wasn’t easy. In the first half I thought we had good control without the ability to trouble the opponents’ box really. So, conceding this goal on a set-piece, the second phase is unlucky, but it is what it is. We knew they were strong on this phase."

HALF TIME CHANGES

"During half-time we agreed it was important to take more risks, even if it meant that the game became a bit more unbalanced for transitions, but I think it went well. It’s very important to mention the substitutions. Our subs gave extra energy, more pressing and maybe a bit more composure as well for the end product.”

EUROPE IS ON BUT NOT DONE...

“It’s on [for Europe] but it’s not done. So, from previous experiences, the most important thing is to stay focused on our standards. When we start dreaming, probably it’s a distraction. We had this experience at home a few weeks ago and it was painful. The opponent next week at the Stadium of Light (Chelsea) will be strong. We have to be at our best and to do that we need to train properly, and I hope with our fans we have the power and the energy to give our best."

GROUNDED

“At the moment it’s not on, so if it’s the case at the end of the last game, we’ll have this conversation. Before, it’s about a really good season, we hit the 40-point target early but while we’ve been a bit inconsistent after that, the team have shown that they are still ambitious and have played good football, so now we have an opportunity to play a really exciting fixture at home and we’ll see.”

EXPERIENCE

“In the beginning it was a bit of the unknown. After 14 new signings, we started with Granit [Xhaka] and Bertrand [Traore], with their experience in the Premier League, while with the others, it’s their first year. Their connections went really clean early in the season. They wanted to play together and from that we generated momentum, it was a question of riding the wave and we did well.”

OMAR UPDATE

"He got a small injury during the week. He was confident he could manage the game but in a sprint he felt it a little bit so we decided to avoid something major and we'll see how he is tomorrow. Luke was excellent, as expected, which is really important. I repeat our subs are really important because you can't manage a game with only 11 players. Luke was good here in the FA Cup and good again."