A highly contentious penalty award allowed LOSC Lille Metropole to claim their first win of the Ligue 1 season on Friday, with Divock Origi’s spot-kick sealing a 1-0 victory against newly promoted Stade Malherbe Caen Calvados.
Rene Girard’s side finished third last season to qualify for the Champions League, their success based first and foremost on a watertight defense.
They have yet to concede a goal in the new Ligue 1 campaign, following up a 0-0 draw at home to Metz on the opening day by edging out another of the division’s new boys to set themselves up for Wednesday’s Champions League playoff first leg at home to Portuguese giants FC Porto.
The match, played 160km away from Caen in Le Mans because the Normandy side’s own stadium is being used for the World Equestrian Games, appeared to be heading for a stalemate until referee Sebastien Desiage’s decision to award a penalty in the 69th minute.
CHALLENGE
Origi saw his charge towards goal ended by a superbly timed challenge from Dennis Appiah just inside the box, but Caen were stunned to see the referee point to the spot and show a straight red card to the unfortunate defender.
There was no appeal from young Belgian forward Origi, who was signed by Liverpool last month and then loaned back to Lille for the season after impressing at the World Cup.
However, he got up to score from 12m and Lille held on as Rio Mavuba cleared a last-minute header by Fode Koita off the line.
FRUSTRATION
That made it a frustrating evening for Caen, who marked their return to Ligue 1 after a two-year absence by beating Evian 3-0 last weekend, but lost influential striker Mathieu Duhamel to an ankle injury early in the second half on Friday.
“It was not a good match. We didn’t deserve to lose, but we didn’t deserve to win either,” Girard told beIN Sports.
“We didn’t take much pleasure from this game, but I’m not worried. We had a difficult start to last season as well. There is work to be done, but now we have a very important match on Wednesday,” he added.
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