Friday, April 9, 2021 at 10:57 PM• Mart van Mourik

Lille OSC booked a minimal victory in Ligue 1 on Friday evening. On a visit to FC Metz, the team of trainer Christophe Galtier experienced a particularly difficult evening, which ended well: 0-2. Thanks to the victory, leader Lille enlarges the gap in the rankings with Paris Saint-Germain to six points for the time being, but the Parisians will finish an away game against RC Strasbourg on Saturday evening. AS Monaco is seven points behind the list leader; Olympique Lyon is fourth eight points behind Lille.

After a reluctant opening phase from both sides, the game seemed to be broken open after fifteen minutes of play. A shot from John Boye ended up on the arm of José Fonte, after which referee Clément Turpin rightly pointed to the spot. Although Aaron Leya took the penalty kick convincingly, goalkeeper Mike Maignan managed to keep his goal clean with a nice save. After half an hour of play, Metz again came close to the opening goal. At the edge of the box, Fabien Centonze fired at the enemy target, but his shot went just wide of the left post.

Lille, which kicked off with Sven Botman, certainly did not impress the first act and Boubakary Soumaré (header) was the only one who came close to a goal. Although the field game of Galtier’s team was not excellent even after the break, the opening goal was found after an hour of play. Renato Sanches used his body to get through to the box, after which he gave Burak Yilmaz the opportunity to shoot hard in the short corner: 0-1. Some great opportunities for Metz preceded the goal. However, it was Maignan twice who kept his team going with nice saves.

After the goal, an impasse broke out, which was only broken in the final minute of regular time. Domagoj Bradaric received a short corner and served on the corner of the box Zeki Çelik, who took a few more steps and made the decision with a diagonal shot: 0-2. Next round, Lille will play a home game against Montpellier, while a week later the top match against Olympique Lyon is scheduled.