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Dijon'scoach: These are our games for points

The rookies of the league have no points after three rounds, and now expect two home games, against Aix and Nîmes, direct rivals in the fight to stay which could direct the entire season

Dijon left a good impression at Chamberry last week, despite losing 36-30. On Wednesday, they visited another great French team Montpellier in a round of the League Cup. Coach Lathoud said before the game that the game against Aix is far more important so he left home a few players including the goalkeeper Stojinovic and the right back Parent, and the way he conducted the game showed the need to save some players for today's extremely important meeting.

Less than usual, the other right back Redei played, so the Croatian lefty Jakov Vrankovic got his first big chance but did not especially used it with 3/11 of shots. Dijon led 12-10 at the half-time, but it was obviously very loud in Montpellier's locker room since they started the second half frantically winning it 23-9. Omeyer and Siffer together had as many as 26 saves. The great Omeyer was in the zone with the unreal 17/27 or 63 percent of saves.

There was not much of a chance for points in the first three rounds, Montpellier and Chambery are in some other dimension, since they were already losing 16-7 at half-time in the opener against Selestat. They now expect two home games against Aix and Nîmes, the direct rivals in the fight to stay and that could direct the whole season.

- We will not be spectators anymore, but active participants, and that means "bad guys" and warriors - coach Denis Lathoud announced these two games, aware that the entire season may depend upon them.

- We did not play against strong opponents in the preparatory period, there was no pressure in the first two rounds to lift us to a needed level. These are the games where we must win points. To win is the only solution, or we will dangerously fall behind.

After this, they expect two away games in a row in Paris, against Tremblay and Ivry, and then the home game against PSG. All of which battles which will be hard to survive.

Aix is under no such pressure. They won the first away game against Ivry (21-20) with their great defense, and then played excellent 30 minutes against St. Raphaël, winning 26-25. Being kicked out from the League Cup by Chambery (33-24) no one saw as especially tragic. What has to be stressed is that the goalkeeper Cappelle had an unreal second half with 15 saves and 60 percent of success. That is not an everyday thing, especially against such a quality opponent. The offensive part did Stojanovic, Goñi Lopez and Thobie, all three scoring four goals.

-This was not our best game, but the team showed great courage against the very good St. Raphaël - coach Jérémy Roussel was happy.

- After the loss in Chambery, we are lucky no one got injured and that we saved our players from an unnecessary fatigue, which gives us a team ready fro Dijon. We feel we are making progress the mood in the team is good - stresses head coach.

- The situation is much harder for Dijon, we will play with far less tension. It will be a game with a lot engagement, we must be solid in defense and above all, stay disciplined.

Dijon are newcomers to the league, and they have lost their opening three matches. So they will treat today's game as a cup final. They now have two home games in a row against relegation battle rivals, and they will be extremely motivated and aggressive today. In the first few rounds they have shown that they play well on defense, unlike on offense. They conceded 25 at Sélestat in their opening match, and then limited Montpellier to 26 at home. Not only that, but they didn't concede a single goal for the last 12 minutes of that game. Aix have won 21-20 against Ivry and 26-25 against St. Raphaël, a team with a lot of good offensive players. They have a good goalkeeping duo and they know how to play good defense. Since Nikola Karabatic left they are no longer that good in offense, and since this is expected to be a scrappy game, this under has a lot of value.