Here's what Francesco Farioli had to say after Le Gym's rousing 2-1 win at home to Reims on Sunday.

Coach, it was a victory we had to go after with a lot of determination...

We knew it was going to be a match of duels, we'd talked about that during the week. It was going to be a game with some tough situations, and we knew that our state of mind and our determination to win these kind of slightly 'dirty' situations would make the difference in this match. The game was a bit different from what we expected in the first half. I think it was the first time that Reims had changed their formation and they chose to sit back somewhat. We expected them to be more aggressive in the first half. We were able to create chances but in the second half they reverted to their usual style of play. I'd like to add that Gaëtan Laborde's shot and his celebration clearly showed his passion and drive. It showed the spirit that this team has.

Can you comment on the performances of Gaëtan Laborde and Jérémie Boga, two players who haven't had much success recently? You put your faith in them again and they turned in crucial performances.

There are times during the season when you just need to touch the ball to create a chance, and there are other times when it's a bit more difficult. But these lads, despite some games in which they were a little less successful, are making such a contribution through their clear thinking, determination, commitment and extraordinary mindset. We said during the week that these players deserved to score because of their quality, but above all they deserve it because of the enormous amount of work they put into every game. Often, when we talk about our defensive qualities, we forget the exceptional work done by the five attacking players, with and without the ball. We've claimed all our points through sweat, sacrifice and hard work. We can be very proud of that.

It was a fairly insipid game right up until the goal but then it turned electric...

I don't agree, I saw a very good match. We could have scored at least two goals in the first half give nthat we managed to keep a team like Reims in their own half. We hardly conceded a chance. After that, we lost touch a little around the half-hour mark, but we controlled the game with strength, determination and a desire to win despite having some key players missing. It was a great response from the squad. We know that we still have to improve and we know the difficulties ahead, but I don't agree that it was an insipid match.

How did you feel about the electric finish?

I saw the electricity from the very first minutes of the match. In the first 20 minutes, we created three or four chances. There was a missed pass, a poor choice, a ball that Gaëtan Laborde won as we pressed high, another ball from Laborde to Terem Moffi that didn't go in... There were a lot of passes into the opponents' six-yard box that we couldn't finish - but we had the chances. Sometimes I don't understand what more we're expecting. After conceding the goal, we made the changes we needed to win the match. You can't be Real Madrid every game.

We're talking more about the aggression at the end of the game...

In the first half, Reims had a bit more of a wait-and-see attitude - they played a bit deeper and waited for us. At the end of the game, when we created more chances, the level of electricity increased because there were more close duels, a foul here and there, reactions, yellow cards... That's why it became more electric at the end of the match.

It was Bułka's long clearance that led to the breakthrough. Could having a bit more variety in your play be a solution for the future?

Sometimes it's a bit hard to explain. We have to be able to understand what our opponents are conceding to us. This morning, at our pre-match meeting, we looked at the situations in which we could attack, because there was a chance they could leave us space in certain phases of possession. We knew that could give us an advantage. After that, not all matches are the same, and not all opponents are the same. You have to be able to read your opponents in relation to their game plan. That's the analytical work we do all week and what I really liked about today was that we were able to adapt. We had prepared for this match by imagining that Reims would play the whole match the way they did in the second half. The lads were able to adapt to a game like the one played by Nantes, against a team that plays deeper. If we want to keep going, we have to be able to read what our opponents are going to do, we have to have several strings to our bow and we have to be able to optimise our game plan to get results.

You put Moffi back on the right and started Laborde in the middle. Was that a way of restoring Laborde's confidence, in a position where he can find his feet more easily than on the flanks?

In our search for balance, it's a solution we tried out two games ago against Toulouse. Gaëtan as a striker provides us with different solutions. He allows us to exploit Terem's physical abilities in the open spaces on the flanks. This system could be repeated in the future. After that, nothing's set in stone. We've also put in some excellent performances with Terem at centre-forward and Gaëtan on the right. We'll have to see what happens in each match and adapt our positioning.

What happened at the end of the match with Will Still?

I went to say hello to him at the end, as I do with all the coaches. There was some tension, and I'd spoken to the fourth referee about Melvin Bard's yellow card. I wanted an explanation as to why the opponent hadn't been penalised even though he'd committed the foul. Things that happen on the pitch stay on the pitch and there are no hard feelings on my side.

---