Angers (AFP)

Despite some real opportunities, Angers was not reassured Friday, losing 2-0 to Lille, under the eyes of the club president, Said Chabane, indicted Wednesday for aggravated sexual violence.

With this victory, Lille continues its good streak and temporarily rises to the level of Rennes, which receives Brest on Saturday and remains 3rd only thanks to a better goal difference.

But the Mastiffs, who receive Marseille in eight days, saw their striker Victor Osimhen come out at the end of the match on a stretcher, apparently hit a thigh and replaced by the Argentinian midfielder Nicolas Gaitan, Lille's latest recruit.

As against Monaco on Tuesday (1-0 defeat), the Angevins were picked cold by the opening of the score at the start of the match, especially since it was not of an exemplary clarity.

On a recovery from Gabriel Magalhaes who left Vincent Manceau on the ground, Lille launched a rapid counterattack under the whistles of the public, concluded by a flat lob on the foot of Victor Oshimhen, well served by Jonathan Bamba.

First refused for offside, the goal was validated after intervention by distance arbitration (0-1, 14th).

- Angers blocked -

Dominated in midfield and often clumsy in their passes or controls, Stéphane Moulin's players have conceded many occasions: unsuccessful strikes from Jonathan Bamba (35th, 82nd, 90 + 4) or Loïc Rémy (51st), a head close to the frame of Osihmen (59th), good exits from goalkeeper Ludovic Butelle against Rémy (25th) then Osihmen (77th).

But with a little more efficiency, the Angevin offensive inclinations could have been rewarded: a unscrewed strike from Rachid Alioui (7th), several dangerous centers where he only missed a few centimeters to the recipients, a resumption of volley from Fulgini countered (70th), but also several doubtful gestures in the area for which the public demanded a penalty (38th, 42nd, 68th).

The Lille finally made the break on a counterattack in which Luiz Araujo served Renato Sanches, who scored with a flat hit between the legs of Butelle.

Dashing in the first part of the season to the point of spending more than a month on the podium in the fall, Angers remains stuck in a provisional 13th place. With the exception of its first rounds of the Coupe de France against Dieppe (N3) then Rouen (N2), the club has not won since its good performance on December 21 in Nantes (2-1).

What makes all the more difficult the choice of the club to speak only the field in the face of the turmoil around the judicial setbacks of its president, who had brought stability and efficiency to the club since 2011 but is accused of sexual assault in four young women, employees or former employees.

© 2020 AFP