Saint-Etienne (ASSE) finally goes green. After three worrying outings punished by three defeats − without any goals scored −, ASSE, back in Ligue 1 after two years in the lower tier, displayed, on Friday September 13, great discipline and great defensive solidarity to snatch its first success of the season, at the expense of Lille (LOSC), in the opening of the 4e day (1-0).
Dominant but ineffective, LOSC, beaten by Paris Saint-Germain (3-1) just before the international break, conceded its second consecutive defeat, after having started the championship with two victories. Not very reassuring to launch a marathon series of six matches in twenty-three days before the next break.
“Tonight, the match we played is shameful, I am ashamed of what we offered”declared Lille president Olivier Létang after the defeat. “I’m going to talk about the commitment. I have to congratulate Saint-Etienne who were committed. Their victory was deserved and we could have conceded a second goal.”he admitted.
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Cafaro sole scorer
With more than 70% possession of the ball, the Northerners, who will play Tuesday in Lisbon against Sporting Portugal for the 1e Champions League matchday, largely had control of the match, but did not show themselves to be realistic. Quite the opposite of the Stéphanois who quickly opened the scoring thanks to Mathieu Cafaro, with a shot into the top corner after a cross delivered from the right wing by the Georgian Zuriko Davitashvili, in the 6th minutee minute (1-0).
Lille’s Rémy Cabella, ex-Stéphanois, was very dangerous near Gautier Larsonneur’s goal who, on the corner which followed his action, made a great save on a header from Benjamin André (14e). Edon Zhegrova found the bar (34e).
In the second half, Lille, handicapped by the absence of several players, notably midfielders (Bentaleb, Haraldsson, Mukau, Ethan Mbappé), were even more pressing against a Saint-Etienne team grouped in defense and proceeding on the counterattack.
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The entry into play of Jonathan David, Angel Gomes or Osame Sahraoui at the hour mark (57e) confirmed the pressure from Lille on the Greens but without any more success, like a shot from David, although well placed in front of Larsonneur, going wide (75e). The goalkeeper was again decisive against Mitchel Bakker at the end of the match (84e).
“We are building a team”
“We didn’t have enough situations in relation to our domination”lamented Lille coach Bruno Genesio. We lacked technical accuracy in the final move and especially in the crosses.”he explained, without wanting to focus on the absences in his workforce. “This is the case for all European teams that have international players.”he said.
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For their part, the Stéphanois had several opportunities to double the lead, notably through Cafaro, on an attempt pushed back by Lucas Chevalier into the feet of the Belgian Lucas Stassin, who shot over (19e). Saint-Etienne’s only goal scorer also forced Chevalier into a difficult save just before the break (45e), while the Lille goalkeeper also intervened in front of Davitashvili (25e).
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On a ball lost by Diakité, Stassin again found himself alone in front of Chevalier but the goalkeeper won his duel against the Belgian international hopeful (72e) while Davitashvili narrowly missed the target in added time (90 + 2).
“We are building a team. It takes time”commented the Greens coach, Olivier Dall’Oglio. “I know that some people are very impatient. We’ll have to wait a little bit. But I’m hopeful that we’ll have a real team and be able to fight in every match like we did tonight against Lille.”he added.
Létang promises an “explanation” with the players
With this short but precious success, the Stéphanois abandon the last place in the ranking and temporarily move up to 15th.e rank, while waiting for the continuation of this 4e daytime.
LOSC, on the eve of a new European campaign, suffered a third defeat in a row − including the one in Prague in the return leg of the Champions League play-off − and fell one place to 7the for now.
“We have four league games and six points. This is a wake-up call for everyone to wake up. At the moment, what we are doing is not enough at all.”castigated Olivier Létang who promised a « explication » with the players.
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