Lille had the chance to put their Champions League defeat at Arsenal behind them and climb to the top of Ligue 1 on Saturday, but another awkward evening followed.
Lille missed the chance to move top of Ligue 1 on Saturday after being held 1-1 at home by Brest, four days after their 3-0 Champions League defeat at Arsenal.
A win would have taken Lille to 16 points and put them clear at the summit, but they instead needed a second-half penalty from former Gunner Olivier Giroud to avoid defeat.
Brest struck after only six minutes through Mama Balde, leaving Lille chasing the game for almost an hour.
The equaliser came in the 64th minute when Ethan Mbappe won a penalty following a challenge with Bradley Locko, and Giroud converted from the spot.
AFP described the award as “a rather obvious penalty”, and it gave Lille a route back into a match in which their attacking play had lacked a final cutting edge, as we had seen at the Emirates on Tuesday night.
Unlike at the Emirates, however, where they managed just three touches in Arsenal’s box, here they had 44, along with 17 shots.
They pushed for a winner after drawing level, with Brest goalkeeper Egil Selvik producing an acrobatic save to deny former Spurs man, Nabil Bentaleb, from a free kick.
Brest, however, also created two late chances on the counterattack that could have won them the game and lifted them in to the European places for a while, at least.
The result left Lille on 14 points from seven Ligue 1 matches, with four wins, two draws and one defeat.
At the end of Saturday’s games, Paris Saint-Germain, Lille and Monaco were all level on points and goal difference, with PSG ahead of Lille on goals scored and Monaco still to play on Sunday.
The French champions and current Champions League holders won 3-1 away to Strasbourg.
The draw for Davide Ancelotti‘s side made for a frustrating result after Tuesday’s setback at Arsenal, where they were made to work extremely hard for no reward.
Lille had arrived at the Emirates with four clean sheets from their opening six Ligue 1 games, only for Arsenal’s 3-0 win to become their joint-heaviest defeat in more than four years.
After the game, L’Equipe (via a poor Google translation), said of the game, “They [Lille] expected to suffer, they have experienced a real ordeal. An hour and a half running in the void, without touching a ball, contemplating the Gunners passing and passing the ball again, moving them, staring at them, dribbling them, having fun with them until exhausting them, to end up picking them up with a spoon.”
AFP also reported that the draw would do little to quiet criticism of the ‘uninspiring’ football produced by Davide Ancelotti’s side.
Their domestic record remains strong, with only one defeat in seven and a draw against PSG in the second week of the season, but this week has been disappointing.
Arsenal outclassed them in Europe, and Brest then came close to taking all three points in their own backyard.
Giroud at least provided some relief. The former Arsenal striker, now 40, scored his first goal since the opening weekend and celebrated by holding up the shirt of injured team-mate Tiago Santos, who picked up an ACL injury at the start of the week.
It was enough to rescue a point, but not enough to send Lille top.
Next up for Lille is a home game against Galatasary.
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