Gillot hits back after Coupe de France loss

Bordeaux coach Francis Gillot has taken a swipe at journalists after his team’s 3-1 Coupe de France loss to Lyon on Wednesday.

Newspaper reports before the clash suggested that Gillot had made comments saying he thought Lyon would be easy to beat because they had rested players.

But the 51-year-old bristled at the suggestion, saying that he had been misquoted and the media wanted to create controversy.

Asked whether Lyon were better than he anticipated, Gillot replied: “That’s not what I said. The problem is that it’s you that likes stirring controversy.”

“And you think that me, at my age, that I thought Lyon would give us an easy match? No? Is that what you think?”

Pressed further on his thoughts about the match, Gillot added: “I saw a Lyon team who were not at the top of their game, so I was right. I was absolutely right that they would try and coast through.”

“Everything about them, right down to their substitutes, but they were simply stronger than Bordeaux tonight.”

“Coasting through implies a choice, so I was right. It’s hardly stirring controversy, like a politician. You just like creating controversy.”

“I’m not going to talk about Lyon’s victory – they were better than us. We put in an encouraging, brave performance. We missed a few chances, and maybe if we’d taken them we’d have taken Lyon further. But overall they were better, there you go.”

Lyon counterpart Remi Garde was proud of his team’s performance despite resting five players for the clash ahead of a Ligue 1 match against Caen on Saturday.

“It shows that the team have a lot of character, a lot of heart, I think we saw that tonight. And more than a team, it’s a group that I like,” he said.

“We made a few changes for today and the group stood up for themselves and were ambitious. It wasn’t totally perfect, of course. I think the spirit is there. So it’s going to be difficult to beat us at the moment.”

“I fielded a side to win the match, to try to not have players who had had too much, played too many games. We’re ambitious in all competitions. There’s no reason give anything away. There you go. And we’ll see how that shapes up for us on Saturday.”

Garde was impressed by Bordeaux’s spirit and said it was difficult to find a way past their defence.

“Bordeaux defended very deep, and with the speed of their forwards they could strike at any moment, they were dangerous,” he said.

“So although we were lacking a bit in the final third, we did what we had to. We lacked a bit of depth and fight there. But despite that we were still able to get through and test this Bordeaux defence.”