Following OGC Nice’s victory over local rivals AS Monaco (1-0), which puts them top of Ligue 1, Francesco Farioli sought to temper expectations post-match.
In the press conference, attended by Get French Football News, Farioli said that despite his side’s position in the standings, they can’t be considered favourites. “We aren’t the favourites. If we start to think like that, we’ll make a false step. I come back to my presentation press conference where I said I wanted to bring a spirit of work and heads down. Since then, we have come through contrasting times: sometimes positive, sometimes with good performances, but without the results. Now, we’re where we need to be in terms of points, of absolute value,” began the 34-year-old Italian.
“After six matchdays, we can’t allow ourselves to look at the table or to dream. We need to be happy with what we’ve done so far. Difficulties will await us. We have to anticipate them and know how to avoid them and continue to work, as we’ve done so far, perhaps even more. The risk when winning is to forget how you got those victories, it’s through sacrifice and lots of attention,” added Farioli.
Questioned by GFFN as to which victory he preferred, Friday night’s against the local rival, which sends them top, or last week’s 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain, Farioli replied, “It is difficult to choose between the two victories. We need to savour this victory and make the most of it. We deserved it. Tonight we had a lot of luck. It is rare for a team to win having conceded two penalties. Well done to Marcin (Bulka), Jarkko (Tuomisto) and Kevin (Jeffries). It is the small details of each of us that make the difference. Today, luck was maybe on our side, the luck that maybe wasn’t on our side in the opening matches. Luck but also merit for the players who did an excellent job.”
