This evening, at the Grand Stade Lille Métropole, LOSC and Sochaux will compete with very different objectives. LOSC, with their rise in the standings since the beginning of 2013, aimed to continue their climb and potentially move to 3rd place if they secured a home victory against Sochaux. On the other hand, Sochaux, currently 18th and struggling for survival in Ligue 1, faced a critical situation with three matches without a victory.
If LOSC secured a victory, they could surpass Lyon and secure a place on the podium. For Sochaux, a win was crucial to climb out of the relegation zone and move up to 15th place. Cédric Bakambu, the striker from the DRC and Sochaux’s top scorer with eight goals this season, acknowledged the difficulty of the match but expressed optimism about the team’s ability to achieve a positive result.
“Of course, we are in the relegation zone, but up to 14th place, it’s super tight. We know that at any moment, we can switch to the other side of the line, and that’s what motivates us,” Bakambu stated.
He emphasized the team’s desire to win and draw inspiration from their ability to perform against stronger opponents. Despite the challenges, Bakambu believed that everything was possible and highlighted the importance of winning crucial matches against teams of their level.
“It’s true that against the big teams, we have less pressure, we play more liberated. Whereas direct confrontations are difficult to manage. We lost a lot of matches against teams of our level. This is perhaps because of the pressure which is more present in this type of meeting. We also have a fairly young team. Now, we must not make excuses because we must know how to win these matches,” Bakambu concluded.
