August 21, 2022
Being on holiday on a French island in the Caribbean is a good opportunity to catch-up on what is happening in French football !
On the previous day we had been in a bar close to where we are staying and watched the second half of a very competitive match between Olympic Marseille and FC Nantes, in which despite going down to 10 men, Marseille went on to take all three points thanks to a late own goal.
Lille are commonly abbreviated to LOSC. I have previously attended one LOSC home match, a 2-3 home defeat in June 1993 to Strasbourg, in front of 5,284 spectators. Lille led 2-0 at half time but Franck Leboeuf pulled one back from the penalty spot, and the visitors scored twice in the last 10 minutes took clinch an unlikely and unexpected away win. My one memory of the game is a tremendous rainstorm breaking out during the match, and all the supporters on an open terrace were allowed to move to a covered part of the ground.
LOSC now play in a new 50,000 capacity stadium which opened in 2012. They broke PSG’s monopoly on the French title with a surprise title in 2020/21, and having also won the league 2010/11, so it might perhaps be worth having a little bet on them to win the 2030/31 championship ! With many of their title winning squad leaving for better offers, Lille’s title defence ended in 10th place, and the coach of the side that won the 2020/21 title, Christophe Galtier, is now coach of PSG.
LOSC had started the season with a 4-1 home victory over Auxerre and then drawn 1-1 at Nantes so were expected to put-up a stiffer challenge to a PSG side that had cantered to a 6-0 win at Lorient and a 5-2 triumph over Montpellier in the Parc des Princes.
PSG have won 8 of the last 10 French titles and like Bayern Munich in Germany, are in danger of reducing the domestic league to where there is no debate or interest over who will win the league, but rather where will the other 19 sides finish. Despite the presence of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar Jr, PSG though have failed to achieve the success in Europe they so desperately crave, last year dramatically folding to Real Madrid when holding a 2-0 aggregate lead with 30 minutes left in the tie, only to fall to a hat-trick from Real’s French striker Karim Benzema.
We arrived a few minutes after to kick-off to see that PSG, playing in a faded grey kit that looked like white shirts which hadn’t been washed properly, were already ahead, and I commented that the match was effectively over as a contest. During a break for an injury, the goal was reshown, and it took PSG just 8 seconds to score. With the LOSC defence sleeping in expectation of PSG to pass the ball amongst themselves, Messi looked up, immediately chipped over the static back for Mbappe to latch onto and skilfully lob the bouncing ball over the advancing keeper with the game’s 5th touch. A reward for direct football !
Shellshocked, Lille sat back in numbers and watched on as PSG played some thrilling first touch passes and another goal appeared inevitable. Messi did find the net after an unselfish lay off by Hakimi, who could have shot himself, but Hakimi was a couple of yards offside, and Neymar and Messi squandered good opportunities. Eventually, the second goal arrived in the 27th minute, as after another flowing move Messi swept home a low cross from the left from Mendes,
LOSC finally awoke from their passivity and started to press higher up the pitch, and the PSG back three didn’t look as comfortable on the ball, and gave away several throw-ins as errors crept into their passing play at the back. Indeed, Lille record signing, Canadian International Jonathan David from Gent for 27M EUR, forced PSG keeper Donnarumma into two saves, which came from the category of look good when saved but question would be asked if went into the net.
However, it was noticeable that when Lille had the ball, their players usually did not see the runs into space being made, or played the safe pass backward, or tried to go it alone rather than look for a better placed team-mate. Amidst all this, Sergio Ramos fulfilled his contractual requirements with an obligatory yellow card for an unnecessary foul.
This short spell of pressure ended and third PSG goal came in the 39th minute when Neymar played a cute pass to give Hakimi a simple finish past LOSC keeper Jardim, and shortly afterwards LOSC lost possession in midfield and two passes later Neymar drilled right-footed into the corner to make it 0-4.
Without any of his pathetic theatrics and faking of injures that he is globally renown and despised for, Neymar actually gave a reminder that he is, after all, a pretty decent footballer, and his performance was full of unselfish play, first time lay-offs and intelligent passes. He was clearly the man of the match.
LOSC could have pulled one back on the stroke of half-time but Diakite headed poorly when only a few yards out, and Donnarumma was able to push away..
The one-way traffic continued at the start of the second half, and it was soon 5-0 as LOSC failed to clear their lines, Hakimi played a square ball across the area where Mbappe’s step-over dummy completely fooled the defender and the unmarked Neymar converted from around 10 yards.
With perhaps PSG patting themselves on the back, LOSC scored a goal of their own as Turkish international midfielder Yusef Yacizi played in Brazilian left-back Ismaily behind Ramos, and his cross was converted at the second attempt by Jonathan Bamba.
PSG stepped up the pace after the shock of conceding and another one touch move set-up Vitinha just inside the penalty area, but the ex-Wolves loanee could only spoon his effort high over the bar, and a few minutes later he poke a loose ball wide of the post from a few yards out, taking the ball off the toes of Marquinhos who would almost certainly have scored.
PSG’s sixth goal came in the 66th minute. Mbappe received the ball close to half-way, looked up and picked out Neymar who had made a clever run into space down the left-hand channel. Neymar headed for goal, looked up and saw Mbappe’s incredible burst of speed through the middle, and the short pass behind the defender put Mbappe clear to blast left-footed into the roof of the net.
With three minutes remaining PSG wrapped up the scoring. Following the breakdown of a LOSC attack the ball was quickly worked forward, Neymar played a long ball out to Mbappe on the left, who then cut-back inside past the threadbare cover to thrash home his side’s 7th goal.
The match statistics give a very misleading slant on the game with Lille having nearly as much possession ( 48% vs 52% ), the same number of goal attempts ( 16 each ) and more shots on goal ( 10 vs 9 ). However, they were totally outclassed, and at time the game resembled a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition, with Lille in the Washington Generals role as fall-guys.
PSG have now won their opening three matches, scoring 16 goals in the processes, and followers of the French league will be hoping that Lyon or Marseille will be able to at least give them a bit of a fight for the title.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T8-6vxG-FE
Lille Olympic Sport Club : Jardim – Diakite, Fonte, Alessandro ( Djalo ), Ismaily – Gudmundsson ( Virginius ), Andre ( Martin ), Yazici ( Zhegrova ), Gomes, Bamba – David
Paris St. Germain : Donnarumma – Ramos ( Danilo ), Marquinhos, Kimpembe ( Mukiele )– Hakimi, Verratti, ( Sanches ) Vitinha ( Parades ), Mendes ( Bernat ) – Neymar, Mbeppe, Messi
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