In the Ligue 1, Girondins de Bordeaux already won 2-0 earlier this season on a visit to Dijon. Can Dijon visit the Girondijnen revenge in the sixteenth finals of the Coupe de la Ligue?
Girondins de Bordeaux:
Girondins de Bordeaux was one of the revelations of the new season in Ligue 1 with fifteen points from the first nine games, but in the last few weeks it has been less so with Pedro Sousa’s team. Despite good football and countless chances, AS Saint-Étienne lost 1-0 in the tenth round of play and last weekend the Girondines were dried off 3-0 by an effective Lille. Against Lille, the team of Sousa barely came into the duel in the first half and also in the second half the performances of the Girondijnen, who only scored one goal, were disappointing.
In terms of attack, things are not going too well for the Girondines at the moment, but it is also not going too well in terms of defense with nine goals in the last six games. The defensive trio Pablo, Laurent Koscielny and Edson Mexer simply have too little connection with the midfield, which means that there are often spaces between the lines. However, Sousa has been holding on to his three-man defense for quite some time, so I don’t expect that Dijon will suddenly play differently.
Dijon:
Prior to meeting Stade Brestois last weekend, Dijon collected eight points from the last four games, but the team from the mustard city landed again with both feet on the promoted team. In the first half, keeper Alfred Gomis managed to keep his team going, but after two goals early in the second half, the game was played. Dijon tried to make the connection goal, but simply failed. After twelve games the team from the mustard city has only collected nine points, so an all-or-nothing match in the Coupe de la Ligue does not seem to be an unwelcome change.
Trainer Stéphane Jobart also saw that his team did not play a good game and given that his team will now have to continue to wear the red lantern for at least a week longer, the French coach did well to himself and his team in an underdog position for the coming weeks to maneuver: “We didn’t do much right, created few opportunities and were too rushed. We have to show character in the coming weeks, but many players are tired after tonight.”
