Stade Brest: The reasons for the dream start in the CL

Can fill his star role in Brest: Ludovic Ajorque.
Image Alliance / Sipa USA

And suddenly they are a top European club. At least on paper. Stade Brest, this small town club that has to host Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Wednesday (6.45 p.m., LIVE! on kicker) in the stadium of their hated rival Guingamp because UEFA does not allow games in stadiums with removable tube stands. There are still stands like this in Brest. Why should they have thought about UEFA regulations? The club has never been close to any European competitions.

Now Brest is not only taking part in the premier class for the first time, but after two match days, coach Eric Roy’s team is ahead of Real Madrid, Manchester City and FC Bayern in the newly formed Champions League table. Especially, except for Borussia Dortmund. Of course, the Bretons’ two opening victories “only” came against the two Austrian representatives from Graz and Salzburg. But six points and 6:1 goals from the first two games that the club played on the international stage – you really couldn’t have expected that.

“It’s like a dream,” said Edimilson Fernandes after the massive win in Salzburg. “A 4-0 away win in the Champions League is, for me, the best win of my career.” A pretty high rating for someone who has already played in four of the five top European leagues and has over 30 international matches for Switzerland – and has only been a member of the club for a few weeks. Fernandes is currently on loan from Mainz 05 – as is Ludovic Ajorque, who is obliged to buy after the current season. But everyone in Brest should be happy about that.

Ajorque is already an integral part of the Bretons’ game, although as a center forward he has not yet scored any of the six goals. But that’s not his first job. With his physique and header strength, he is responsible for securing, laying down and passing on the many long balls – a role in which he already knew how to excel in Mainz. Brest contested the most aerial duels per game in the premier class this season; in the opening game against Graz, Ajorque alone had an impressive 16. In Salzburg, Brest won an impressive 69 percent of his aerial duels.

Six new additions over 1.85 meters

The fixation in the air is deeply anchored in the game of coach Eric Roy, who was once considered one of the best aerial players in Ligue 1 as an uncompromising clearer. In addition to the two Mainz players Ajorque (1.96 meters) and Fernandes (1.87 meters), Abdoulaye Ndiaye (1.95), Soumaila Coulibaly from Borussia Dortmund (1.91) and Abdallah Sima (1.88) also came last summer ). ) and Ibrahim Salah (1.86) in Brittany – all on loan. Temporary physicality.

Clear plan on the field, clear plan on the transfer market. “In modern football, size is important in order to meet the physical challenges,” said Gregory Lorenzi, the sports director responsible for squad planning, during the transfer phase. “This is especially important with free kicks. But size isn’t everything. It’s also about power and speed.”

Because speed is the second major component in the Bretons’ game: once the ball is secured, things have to happen quickly. Like the opening goal in Salbzürg, when Ajorque held his own on a long ball and then placed it perfectly into the path of the advancing Sima. The lanky Senegalese actually belongs to Brighton & Hove Albion – and has so far fulfilled his mandate optimally with three goals in two Champions League games: “We wanted a striker who has speed and size,” said Roy when Simas was signed. “He is a player who has a good feel for space and a good finish.”

The third important pillar for the Bretons’ unexpected rise is efficiency. After the Salzburg game, looking at the data, it was 4-0 in terms of goals, but 13-15 in terms of shots on goal. There had never been such a high victory with fewer shots since data collection began in the premier class.

Of course, something like this cannot be planned – even in Brest. But it fits the philosophy of Roy, who would rather play badly than flat to win big. After a league game, he recently said a sentence that would probably not pass the lips of a not too ambitious Champions League coach: “I love winning games in which we didn’t play well.”