Lille scored a good blow on the pitch at Stade Auguste-Delaune (1-0), on the occasion of the 24th day of Ligue 1. By beating Stade de Reims by the smallest of margins thanks to the twelfth goal of Jonathan David in the championship (56th), they come back to one point behind Monaco held in check by PSG on Friday (0-0). By signing their third away success of the season (only), Fonseca’s men provisionally take 4th place while awaiting the result of Nice traveling to Toulouse on Sunday. For their part, the Rémois stagnate in 8th place in the ranking and make themselves vulnerable in the event of a Marseille victory in Clermont.
A match that took a long, long time to get going. The two teams played with a low block and therefore neutralized each other during a first period which lacked excitement. Lille still created a few chances when Zhegrova’s shot was repelled and replayed by David at close range, but Diouf remained perfectly vigilant and pushed back twice. The Mastiffs continued to project quickly in order to overtake the Reims block. Once again found on a nice crossbar, Zhegrova served Haraldsson in the area who deceived Diouf with a powerful shot at the near post.
But an offside position from Kosovar logically canceled this goal. The two teams therefore returned to the locker room with a parity score after a first act which lacked spark. When we returned from the locker room, the match finally got underway. The two teams, surely shaken by their respective coaches at the break, returned with new intentions. Then on a harmless pressing from Jonathan David, the match changed.
Reims defender Abdelhamid missed his throw-back towards Diouf and the Canadian striker wasn’t asking for that much. He placed the ball perfectly above the goalkeeper’s foot to give the Mastiffs the advantage (0-1). Behind, Lille perfectly resisted the various Reims offensives at the end of the match. With the efforts of all his players, Paulo Fonseca did not hesitate to make changes to keep freshness in his block. Opposite, the Stade Rémois players lacked realism in too many gestures to hope to leave with points from this 24th day.
Lille therefore strikes a big blow in the race for the Champions League and temporarily regains 4th place in the standings. Reims is stagnating in 8th place for the moment and is seeing its European dreams become a little further away.
