Benoit Costil, guardian of the Girondins temple.

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THIBAUD MORITZ / AFP

  • The Girondins host this Saturday (9 p.m.) Lorient at Matmut Atlantique on the occasion of the 19th day of Ligue 1.

  • Failing to be brilliant this season, the Bordelais are very solid.

    It is the best team of the five major European leagues not to concede a goal.

  • For that, the Marines and Whites rely on a keeper as good as ever, an interchangeable central hinge and a tireless Otavio in the midfield.

Sometimes you have to know how to be satisfied with a little, a very little in life.

Supporters of the Girondins are starting to get used to it over time.

While for the moment their club is heading once again towards a season without relief and without ambition (12th in Ligue 1), they can at least cling to a positive statistic: Bordeaux is the team of the five major European championships to have made the most

clean sheets

 this season.

Ten games without conceding a goal.

Failing to be brilliant like the draw obtained in Metz on Wednesday, the players of Jean-Louis Gasset have again kept their clean sheet in Lorraine.

It is also this defensive strength that allows them not to sink further into the bottom of the standings with yet the third worst attack in the championship (18 goals in 18 games).

To be as solid, the coach of the Navy and White relies on three pillars: his goalkeeper, his central defense and his defensive midfielder.

Costil, the safe bet

After a very complicated summer, Benoit Costil has regained his best level in recent months.

He is the quiet force of this defense.

Not necessarily spectacular but still there, clean and efficient.

He often made the right stop at the right time or saved his team from taking on water.

And this fall, he even made his return to the France team.

He was shocked by the departure of Paulo Grillo [the former goalkeeper coach] and touched by the loss of the armband in the offseason but he returned to the fight as always and his collaboration with Fabrice Grange is going very well for the moment. », Explains his entourage.

Benoit Costil has kept his clean sheet ten times this season.

- JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN / AFP

Fifth best goalkeeper in percentage of saves in Ligue 1 (behind Benitez, Mandanda, Lopes and Maignan), he also resumed his place as leader in the locker room after a small withdrawal.

"It's natural for him," recalls a relative of the vice-captain of the Girondins.

Under contract until 2022, Benoit Costil remains attentive to proposals with the perhaps desire to experience one last great adventure in his career.

Koscielny-Baysse-Pablo, a high-level trio

This is one of the Girondins' strengths this season, having three interchangeable central defenders, even if of course captain Laurent Koscielny remains the boss.

But in case of suspensions or injuries, he can count on Pablo returning to a very good level after his serious knee injury and on a Paul Baysse resurrected after more than a year in the closet with Paulo Sousa.

Very good in the aerial game and in the duel, the three men simply suffer, sometimes, from a speed deficit.

But Ligue 1 is not full of Kylian Mbappé either.

Koscielny, Baysse and Pablo form a high level trio in defense.

- NICOLAS TUCAT - PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP

In this four-man defense, they also perfectly cover their full-backs more often in difficulty, whether it is Sabaly on the right and Benito on the left.

But beware, the Girondins will have to settle the situation of Baysse and Pablo in January, both at the end of their contract.

An offer of extension was made to the first and several to the second.

If it is on track for the French, the two sides are still far from an agreement for the Brazilian according to information from

20 Minutes.

In this position, the club also hopes to reduce fat this winter and separate from Serbian Vukasin Jovanovic and Mozambican Edson Mexer who is again at 100%.

On these two issues, optimism is in order to find a solution.

The first could also leave the free club.

Otavio, the essential

It is Jean-Louis Gasset himself who says it, Otavio is "indispensable" to his team.

The only real number 6 in the workforce, the Brazilian midfielder "is the only player who recovers balls from the feet of the opponent and unfortunately, there is only one in this team", admitted there little his coach.

Excluding suspension (two games), he has always been the holder since the start of the season.

He is one of the indebted ones like Benoit Costil.

Before the Christmas break, Otavio was the fourth player in Ligue 1 to have made the most tackles this season (43) and the sixth in terms of success in this exercise (38).

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