Bruno Genesio’s Lille thought they were unstoppable. Undefeated for 7 games before facing Lyon, with Real Madrid, Atletico and RC Lens recent victims, the Northerners were on the verge of a third consecutive victory, in all competitions, by dominating the Lyonnais who were still too crumbly . This was without counting on the awakening of Malick Fofana in added time which put the two teams back on level terms in added time (1-1) in a meeting with several faces.
From the start, Pierre Sage’s men took on water under Lille pressure from the first quarter of an hour of play with a multitude of ball losses in their camp. A few minutes after a first big mistake from Niakhaté, it was finally Maitland-Niles, on a disastrous back pass, who opened the scoring to Lille and Jonathan David. The Canadian only had to dribble past Lucas Perri to score his 7th goal of the season in Ligue 1, the 12th in all competitions with Lille this season.
VAR saves LOSC, not Fofana
Returning with much better intentions after a very timid first period, the Gones, led by a Rayan Cherki who was just as twirling as he was messy in front of the goals, for a long time came up against a Lille defense and a Lucas Chevalier who was all smiles at the moment. Well helped by his crossbar (70th), the French goalkeeper was then saved by the VAR, which canceled Maitland-Niles’ equalizer for an offside by Niakhaté (75th). The symbol of a new evening, for the moment, almost perfect for Bruno Genesio against his former club, despite the injury exit of Thomas Meunier.
But that was without counting on a new end to the match that went in all directions. In added time, on a cross to the far post from the same Maitland-Niles, decidedly in all the good and bad shots, Malick Fofana came to transform the offering by beating, finally, Lucas Chevalier with a powerful volley (1 -1, 91st).
With the second consecutive defeat of AS Monaco, surprised by Angers at home (0-1) earlier in the evening, Lille only took a small point from the Monegasques, second, still 3 points behind PSG, solid leader before receive Lens this Saturday (5 p.m.).
