Group B of the CFA is clearly the place to be if you want to become a Coupe de France hero this year. After Chasselay’s defeat of Ligue 2 Istres, and Yzeure’s giant-killing of Ligue 1 Lorient, it is AS Moulins, conquerors of Toulouse, who will be flying the flag for the second pool of France’s fourth tier, in this week’s Coupe de France Quarter-Finals.
Hervé Loubat’s men are having an excellent season in league and cup, and currently sit third in CFA Group B, only one point behind leaders Epinal and unbeaten in 2014, with promotion to the Championnat National a distinct possibility. But this week the Coupe de France is the priority, as they welcome Ligue 2 Angers, promotion candidates themselves, to Gueugnon’s Stade Jean Laville, which with a capacity of 13,500 holds 10,000 more than Moulins’ Stade Hector Rolland.
To reach this stage of the competition – the furthest they have managed in their history – les bleus et blancs defeated CFA2 side Sète 3-1 in the last round, Sébastien Da Silva scoring a brace as the team recovered from going a goal down early on. Da Silva, who also scored a double against Toulouse and now has nine goals in the Coupe run, has been at the Auvergnat club since he was 10 years old and is a symbol of the Moulins team, which prioritises local players above all.
An exception to that rule is well-travelled Ludovic Saline, Moulins’ league top scorer with ten goals. The midfielder, known for his sense of humour (he is a big fan of Jeremy Menez, for example!), becomes more serious as he notes that “it’s since I’ve been at Moulins that I’ve realised the importance of this competition. It’s crazy.” Of the Angers match, Saline is bullish: ”you would think that this run is tiring, but we feel good physically. We must first ensure that we enjoy this match. If we lose, we have nothing to be ashamed of. I am wary of Angers. They’re not great at the moment and this match could relaunch them.”
Indeed, Angers are going through a bad patch. A month or so ago le SCO were challenging for first place in Ligue 2. But this weekend’s defeat against Niort was their fifth straight match without a win, and it saw their opponents replace them in third place in Ligue 2, taking them out of the promotion places for the first time since mid-December. In Yattara, Ayari and Socrier, who have 20 league goals between them, they have a talented strike force and are certainly not to be taken lightly. But their manager – the serendipitously named Stéphane Moulin – is surely likely to see promotion as the priority, and may therefore rest some first team players.
Nevertheless, Moulins midfielder Sébastien Ligoule is aware that the task facing them is a tough one. “Angers are a very good Ligue 2 side who are having a great season. It’s going to be very, very hard for us…we’ve had a great run to the quarter finals and even though we hope to continue our adventure, we’ve already done brilliantly to get this far.”
In Cyrano de Bergerac, le Comte de Guiche reminds Cyrano of the danger of quixotically tilting at windmills, warning that “if you fight with [them] they may swing round their huge arms and cast you down into the mire”. Cyrano retorts “Or up, among the stars!”
On Tuesday night we will see whether it is Moulins or Moulin who is among the stars.