In the sprint to Europe, Lille managed a beautiful operation in their citadel of Pierre-Mauroy, impregnable since August, thanks to a late double of the incoming Edon Zhegrova (89th and 90th + 1).

The Kosovar winger, coming off the bench ten minutes earlier, allows Losc to seize the fifth and last European place in front of Rennes, beaten 1-0 Saturday by Lens.

The Northerners, two points ahead, can hope to increase their lead over the Red and Black next week on the occasion of the trip planned to Angers, red lantern in great difficulty this season.

Zhegrova, the Lille hero, is not the only one to have offered himself an express double: Alexis Flips (38th, 39th), from the top of his 23 years, launched Reims to a big victory in Nantes, beaten 3-0 three days before his semi-final of the Coupe de France against Lyon.

Ajaccio stumbles

The Canaries, who are now only four points ahead of the red zone, will have little time to recover. On Sunday, they came across ultra-efficient Reims in front of goal and who have never been so high in the standings.

Stade de Reims midfielder Alexis Flips (L) celebrates his double on the pitch of FC Nantes, in Ligue 1, on April 2, 2023 © Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS / AFP

Will Still's team is in seventh place with nine rounds to go, a position no one could have predicted five months ago. In mid-October, the Champagne club was flirting with the red zone when the Belgian (30), assistant to Oscar Garcia, was promoted to head coach.

The Reims took advantage of the misstep of Nice, unable to beat the great sick of the championship, Angers (1-1), despite a new goal from Terem Moffi at the very beginning of the game.

Led by the score, Brest overthrew Toulouse 3-1 to give themselves air at the bottom of the table. The Bretons climb to 15th place pending the match of Strasbourg in Monaco (17:05).

Their success brought Auxerre back into the red zone, in 17th place.

AJA is one point behind Strasbourg but widened the gap with Troyes, whom it beat on Saturday, and with Ajaccio, defeated 2-1 on the wire Sunday in Clermont.

In Auvergne, the Corsicans lost the thread of the match after opening the scoring. Reduced to ten in the second half, they conceded a double from Grejohn Kyei on penalty kicks (60th and 90th+3).

Clermont striker Grejohn Kyei (L), during a Ligue 1 match against AC Ajaccio, on April 2, 2023 at the Gabriel-Montpied © stadium JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP

The 29th matchday ends in the evening (20:45) with the arrival of OL at the leaders Paris SG.

© 2023 AFP