Baticle: 'A revelation' | OneFootball

Angers SCO boss Gérald Baticle was a happy man after the see-sawing 2-2 draw in Lens on Friday, praising his players' performance in the match that took his side provisionally sixth in the table and hoping they draw confidence from their excellent season to date.

Angers have made a superb start to life under Gérald Baticle, who took over from long-time coach Stéphane Moulin in the summer. After winning three of their first four of the season, they have tasted defeat just three times - to Nantes, PSG and Nice, two of which are in the top two on the Ligue 1 Uber Eats table - and ridden the wave to provisional sixth place

Pulling together

And although they faced a tough test away to season revelations Lens, Angers opened the scoring through star forward Sofiane Boufal and then had veteran defender Romain Thomas to thank for the equaliser after the home side had come from behind to lead 2-1 thanks to goals from Gael Kakuta and Florian Sotoca.

"It's a point won, for me it was a very good match, a first half where we achieved what we wanted to achieve. We had a difficult quarter of an hour, when we were stuck in the middle, and that allowed them to come back into the game," said Baticle, whose side did what they have done exceedingly well this season: find a way to get a result. "After that I saw lots of interplay, communication and players who knew how to get their foot on the ball, to move to the right areas to ask for it, who didn't hide." No fluke

With four matches left to play in 2021 - at home to Monaco, away to Reims, at home to Clermont and in Montpellier - Angers are well positioned to be in the running for a European place and Baticle is well pleased - but wary - with what his side has achieved so far in his first-ever season as a head coach in Ligue 1 Uber Eats. "We're a third of the way through the season, and it's a revelation," smiled the 52-year-old. "You're never where we are by chance at this stage of the season - but it's still fragile. This ranking should, above all, allow us to gain confidence in our playing principles. To have a wider range of options, so that opponents can come and ask the tough questions of our system of play." >> MATCH REPORT: Honours even between Lens and Angers