Yunis Abdelhamid’s error costs Reims as Lille clinches crucial away victory in Ligue 1: Match Recap and Analysis

Thanks to a big error from Yunis Abdelhamid, Lille returned to success away from home by winning in Reims (1-0) on Saturday during the 24th day of Ligue 1, and temporarily regained fourth place.

Losc (41 points) regained the first qualifying place for the Champions League, which it occupied on the evening of the 22nd day, while awaiting the trip from Nice (40 points) to Toulouse on Sunday (1:00 p.m.).

After six trips without a victory, the Mastiffs finally won away from Stade Pierre-Mauroy. This travel sickness constitutes their main weakness in their quest to obtain a ticket for the C1.

For its part, Reims (34 points) remains eighth but is now within reach of Olympique de Marseille (ninth, 33 points), which goes to Clermont in the evening (9:00 p.m.).

The Rémois are no longer able to string together victories like at the start of the season. They owe this defeat to their faithful benchmark for seven years: captain Yunis Abdelhamid, who had a moment of absence in the dense rain at the Stade Auguste-Delaune by completely missing his back pass, offering a ready goal to Jonathan David (56th).

A week after announcing that he would leave Stade de Reims at the end of the season, the Moroccan international got off to a bad start to his farewell tour.

The 36-year-old central defender unblocked a match which had not really started at the time, without a clear chance or domination by one of the two teams.

Match the dice

There was indeed this crucial double save by Yehvann Diouf in front of Edon Zhegrova first, then David at point blank range (20th), which responded to the much easier intervention of Lucas Chevalier against Réda Khadra (4th). But that’s about all.

When he opened the scoring, David was the Lille player to have touched the ball the fewest times.

Until the goal, the northern club lacked creativity despite the latest tactical innovation from its coach Paulo Fonseca: the high positioning of right side Tiago Santos in offensive phases, in midfield or even in attack.

On the right flank, Edon Zhegrova only confirmed his loss of speed in recent weeks. The winger is no longer as decisive and confusing with his dribbling. In the Marne, he was imprecise and bad in his choices most of the time. An action symbolizes his match before his exit in the 88th minute: when he very rightly served Hakon Haraldsson for the opener (33rd), before this goal was canceled because Kosovar, who had positioned himself poorly, was offside…

After David’s goal, validated this time, Will Still’s players pushed to equalize, pressing into the Lille penalty area, in vain. African champion with Ivory Coast, Oumar Diakité had a golden opportunity with a header (87th), as did Japanese winger Keito Nakamura with a shot that Lucas Chevalier repelled (90th+4).

Reims folded, betrayed by its captain, and confirmed its irregularity before a perilous trip to Paris next week. Without shining, Lille revived.

2024-03-02 18:46:30
#Ligue #Lille #finally #wins #Reims