Lille and Lyon neutralize each other, Monaco falls against Angers

The 10^e Ligue 1 day began, Friday 1^is November, with a thunderclap: the home defeat of Monaco, second in the ranking, against the poorly ranked Angers (1-0). The podium almost faltered but in the evening, Lille failed to take advantage of the windfall, finally dropping two points in the last minutes at home against Lyon (1-1).

LOSC still gains a place in the standings by moving up to third place with 18 points, but could be overtaken again by Marseille, who play at Nantes on Sunday to close the weekend.

This draw has a bitter taste for Lille, who go from gallop to trot after a historic month of October where they were also dazzling in the Champions League – beating the two giants of Madrid, Real (1-0) and Atlético (3-1) in the Spanish capital – as well as on the national scene with victories against Toulouse (2-1) and Lens (2-0), as well as a draw in Monaco (0-0 ).

The northern club will regret having relaxed its grip in the second period, after a first act where it could have benefited from a much greater advantage than the only goal scored by Jonathan David. The Canadian striker took advantage of a far too soft back pass from Lyonnais Ainsley Maitland-Niles towards his goalkeeper, Lucas Perri, to open the scoring (1-0, 17^e).

“We arrived at half-time”

This goal was a lesser evil for the Lyonnais. Angel Gomes had already missed another one after a first huge blunder by the opposing defense, this time from Moussa Niakhate, then Thomas Meunier saw his recovery hit the crossbar at the conclusion of a very good collective action ( 13^e). Angel Gomes then imitated him, hitting a free kick on the right post of Lucas Perri (32^e).

Lille, attractive in their ability to get the ball out of Lyon's pressure, returned to the locker room with eleven shots (including nine on target) to three on the clock, but a meager advantage on the scoreboard.

“We arrived at half-time”lamented, lucidly, Pierre Sage, the coach of Olympique Lyonnais. Because, in the second period, his team completely reversed the trend to the point where it seemed inevitable that they would equalize. After opportunities from Alexandre Lacazette (53^e), then Maitland-Niles (59^e), omnipresent in the second period, the young Malick Fofana (19 years old) finally scored (1-1, 90+ 1).

If OL are still progressing slowly after a defeat against Besiktas (1-0) in the Europa League and a draw against Auxerre in the championship, they have found the resources to reverse the trend against the French team in form and have obtained at the end of the suspense a deserved point which allows him to provisionally move up to fifth place (15 points).

Monaco in the tough

A little higher in the standings, Monaco therefore remains second (20 points, three points behind the leader, PSG), despite its second consecutive defeat in Ligue 1. Already falling in Nice (2-1) last week, the Monegasques, not very productive, were logically beaten by a united and well-organized Angevin team, now 14^e (10 points) after also dominating Saint-Etienne (4-2) the previous day.

For the players of the principality, this now makes one point taken out of nine possible in three matches. Austrian coach Adi Hütter has never experienced such a drought since his arrival on the rock last season.

Quickly, the Angevins, led by a good Himad Abdelli in the middle, believed in it. They showed audacity against a poorly organized defensive system. A first good shot from Jim Allevinah was off target (14^e). But, like Lamine Camara's foul on Farid El-Melali, for which the Monegasque was quite logically warned (17^e), the Red and White were constantly late.

Also, after an attempt blocked by Caio Henrique, Allevinah recovered the ball and immediately served Jean-Eudes Aholou. Alone at the entrance to the area, the latter took over from the left without control to mark a masterful strike into the top corner (0-1, 29^e).

“Our worst game of the season”

At the break, after a tactical reshuffle, the entire Monegasque team played in the opposing camp to try to turn the game around. A first attempt from Maghnes Akliouche, narrowly missed (47^e), tried to show the way forward. But what followed was too mediocre. A cross strike from Lamine Camara (66^e) and a recovery from Breel Embolo (69^e) were stopped by goalkeeper Yahia Fofana. Nothing more for a Monaco far from the level required to win a match in the elite.

“This is our worst game of the season. analyzed the Monegasque coach, Adi Hütter. It's simple, we missed everything, especially in the first half. Angers had a very good match, but above all because of the way we played (…) disorderly and too slow”.

The dynamic of his team was broken. And he will have to quickly remobilize his group. First to seek victory in Bologna on Tuesday in the Champions League. Then to bounce back in Ligue 1 in Strasbourg just before the international break.