Lille burned its wild card in the title race by conceding a draw at home against Saint-Étienne (0-0) on Sunday May 16 during the 37th and penultimate day of L1 and will have to win in Angers on the weekend. next end to be sure to be sacred.
Le Losc will no longer have the right to make mistakes because it only has one point ahead of Paris SG, easy winner of Reims (4-0), who will travel to Brest next Sunday.
As paralyzed by the stake, the Mastiffs stammered their football and almost never managed to worry Stéphanois very attractive and well in place defensively.
The Greens could even have won with a little more efficiency.
Christophe Galtier's men will have to show a whole different face in a week on the lawn of the Stade Raymond-Kopa to hope to win the fourth title in its history, the first since the French Cup-Championship double in 2011.
As often this season in its den, Lille ran out of ideas against a compact block and got its best chances at the very end of the match with a free kick from Yusuf Yazici on the post and in the wake a shot from Burak Yilmaz pushed back in extremis by a defender of ASSE (90th).
Lille had yet received an exceptional welcome at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, where several thousand supporters were waiting for them singing at the top of their lungs and lighting hundreds of smoke bombs.
Thus, the Losc bus must have cut through an overexcited crowd and took more than 15 minutes to cover the 200 meters or so separating the hotel from the entrance to the parking area of the enclosure!
Lille jostled
Perhaps tense by the issue, the Northerners were heavily jostled by very enterprising Stéphanois at the start of the meeting.
In a hurry, Christophe Galtier's players increased the loss of the ball and offered situations of cons to the Greens.
On one of them, Denis Bouanga escaped the left side and unleashed a powerful shot that Maignan deflected for a corner (9th).
Then ASSE multiplied the set pieces, like a free kick from Romain Hamouma that Mathieu Debuchy was on the verge of resuming (13th) or two dangerous corners (14th, 15th).
Gradually, the Lille began to get their heads out of the water to regain control of the ball, but this possession was sterile.
It was not until the 36th minute of play to see the first, and only opportunity, of Losc in the first act: after a good full-axis breakthrough, Luiz Araujo served Yilmaz, who handed the ball to the Brazilian, including the resumption of the end of the foot is passed right next to it.
After the break, the face of the meeting did not really change between uninspired Northerners and Foréziens solid behind and fast against.
Le Losc fished in the last thirty meters, showing himself to be dangerous only at the very end of the match, and was even scared on certain actions, like this center barely pushed back by Sven Botman in front of Arnaud Nordin (61st) .
Next Sunday, the Mastiffs will have to better manage the enormous pressure weighing on their shoulders, otherwise their magnificent season will end in sadness.
With AFP
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