The reserve team has secured its place in the league!

After securing a crucial victory in the final seconds last weekend against the league’s second-place team, Mâcon (1-0), the Greens are now traveling to face the bottom-ranked team, Cosne. Although already relegated, the Cosne team has no intention of giving the Greens an easy win.

In a first half dominated by Saint-Étienne, Adam Baallal opened the scoring with a header off a well-taken corner by Jules Mouton (0-1, 33'). Although Les Verts created two one-on-one chances, their lead was just one goal at halftime.

After returning from the locker room, a nightmare scenario loomed. Following an avoidable turnover, the Saint-Étienne defense made a mistake, and the home team equalized on a penalty kick by Jaures (1-1, 50'). But Les Verts have resilience, know their goal, and reacted quickly. Following a marvelous pass behind the defense by Axel Dotote, Noah Moulin also produced a moment of pure class, chipping the ball over the goalkeeper with two touches to put his team back in front (1-2, 57'). After several chances to seal the win, the Greens capitalized on one through Jibril Othman late in regulation (1-3, 87'). But they hadn’t counted on a goal out of nowhere from Mendes Da Silva in the very next minute (2-3, 88th) to sow doubt among the Greens. Yet they held firm and secured a well-deserved victory thanks to their performance, play, and the effort they put in! 

Thanks to this victory, AS Saint-Étienne’s reserve team has secured its place in National 3 and will therefore compete in National 2 next season due to the creation of Ligue 3 and the new league names.

> Final Standings

Coach's reaction

“Staying up is a huge source of satisfaction and a great relief,” says Sylvain Gibert. “We really had to fight for it, because nothing was handed to us all season—just like in this last match, played on a tricky field against an opponent that was already relegated but didn’t give up.” The team showed real character to secure a well-deserved victory. I want to congratulate my players because they’ve worked incredibly hard every week all season long, right up to the very end—like Jules Mouton, who, in his final game with Les Verts, recorded two assists. I’d like to give a special shout-out—and this is important to me—to the dedication of my entire staff, including Director Laurent Huard, who attends all our games, as well as Romain Hamouma, Jules Fauvey, Clément Laxenaire, Guillaume Benier, Haidar Al-Shaïbani, and the entire medical staff. Everyone worked their butts off. All that hard work has just paid off. It’s truly satisfying."