Habib Beye : « We came up against a very mature team. »

His thoughts on tonight's performance
« We came up against a very mature team. They caused us a lot of problems and showed more control than we did. We had a few situations that we should have handled better. We were able to pull them back, but not enough to make them doubt. Lille were in control of the match, but we weren't able to take control. We were up against a Champions League team who were better than us. »

The facts of the game
« They don't help (red cards, injuries...) but I don't want to use them as an excuse. Jérémy Jacquet's injury forced us to change our system and that's when we had a moment of strength and renewed energy. I think our choices in the final third weren't always the right ones, and we lacked the precision and attacking weight to put them under pressure. »

The switch to 4 defenders
« It wasn't a problem going to 4 defenders. We had chances, we created situations. I don't think we were off balance. The problem was that, at one point, we played with 9 men, with Kyogo Furuhashi temporarily out. When you play with 10 men against a team like Lille, it's difficult, but when you play with 9... But I liked the spirit of my players. We had the will to win the match with our intentions and with what we set out to do. We were outplayed but the will was there. »

Lack of opportunities
« We gave Lille very little trouble compared to the previous match against Saint-Étienne. We wanted to create chances, but when you're not in control of the game it's more complicated. There were situations that we should have handled better. But, once again, it's difficult to be dangerous if you're not in control. And when we had chances, we lacked precision. We're going to have to work on that. »

Brice Samba's performance
« I'm disappointed and frustrated for him. With a performance like that, you want to go back to the dressing room with a result and without conceding a goal. He was at international level and showed all his qualities. He kept us in the game on several occasions. His performance was of a very high standard and I would have liked him to have been rewarded with the final result. »

Areas for improvement to beat a Top 5 team
« Il faut une prise de conscience collective pour être capable de hausser notre niveau de jeu. L’adversaire d’aujourd’hui a été plus fort, mais je ne considère pas qu’il y ait eu énormément d’écart. La maîtrise que les Lillois ont vient du fait qu’ils sont matures et en confiance. Je retiens qu’on est capable de rivaliser avec ce type d’équipe, avec l’espoir qu’on va monter en puissance et s’améliorer sur les semaines à venir. Avec la progression, on sera capable de dominer ces équipes-là. »