“Lille” does not misfire

Lille beat Toulouse in the 23rd round of the French championship

Andrey Kartashov In the 23rd round of the French championship, Lille beat Toulouse at home and continues to lead the standings with a 5-point advantage. The team has not lost in 13 matches in a row. Rennes, having beaten Nice, continues the pursuit of Lille.

In the last round, Gervinho scored his 11th goal of the season, provided an assist to Tulio De Melo, and his Lille confidently beat Toulouse. The team leads the French Championship standings, five points ahead of Rennes.

Lille has not lost for 13 matches in a row, and the last failure was on October 24 last year.

In the match with Toulouse, the championship leaders dominated literally from the first minutes of the meeting and were able to open the scoring in the 38th minute. Moussa Sow made a powerful shot, goalkeeper Matthieu Valverde dealt with it, but the ball then hit the post and went into the field. The first to finish was Gervinho, who, with the help of a defender, pushed the ball into the net.

At the end of the first half, the same Sow, the championship's top scorer, could have increased the score and scored his 17th goal of the season, but Valverde reacted to the shot from a good position. Although Gervinho was open and asked for the ball, Sow was greedy. At the end of the match, the Ivorian showed by his example what team play is. Gervinho broke through the Toulouse defense and made a wonderful pass to De Melo. All he had to do was not to miss and put an end to the game.

23rd round. Sunday's matches Lille - Toulouse - 2:0 Goals: Gervinho, 39; de Melo, 90+4 Valenciennes - Brest - 3:0 Goals: Ducourtiou, 14; Biševac, 22; Pujol, 69 Rennes - Nice - 2:0 Goals: Monagno, 52; Bukari, 58-pen

Lille goalkeeper Mikel Landreau played his 500th match in the French championship and his opponents gave him the best gift. Not only did Toulouse lose, but they were also unable to land a single accurate shot on goal.

Earlier, Rennes, desperate to keep up with Lille, scored a comfortable win at home against Nice.

The hosts flirted with their opponents for a long time, but at the beginning of the second half they got tired of the cat and mouse and Rennes scored two goals within six minutes. In the 52nd, Victor Hugo Montaño scored, heading the ball into the net, and then Abdulrazaq Boukari was accurate from the 11-meter mark. The penalty in that episode was reinforced concrete.

Rennes is one point ahead of Marseille and two points ahead of Lyon and PSG. “I have always said that the five teams in the championship have more room for error than we do,” Rennes coach Frederic Antonetti said after the game. “But we don’t give up and believe that we have a chance for a place in the Champions League zone. You just have to wait for the right moment for one of them to slip.”

The Rennes coach and players were given confidence by the victory over PSG, irreconcilable enemies, in the last round (1:0). “We had to win and we won that game,” Antonetti recalls the game with PSG even after the game with Nice. – We had five scoring chances in the first half, but we didn’t convert any of them. It's good that everything ended well. But what worries me more than the implementation is that we can’t win on the road.”

Rennes have not won away from home since September 25th. According to the coach, this is a “real problem” and he no longer knows how to deal with it. In the next round, we'll see if Antonetti finds a cure.

Other news from Ligue 1, as well as the country's Cup and Super Cup, details of matches and the position of teams in the standings can be viewed on the French Championship page.

“Lille” does not misfire - Gazeta.Ru