Lille OSC on Friday climbed six points clear of title rivals Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 with a tight 2-0 win against Metz.
They now lead the French top flight with 69 points from 32 games, while PSG have 63, AS Monaco 62 and Olympique Lyonnais 61 ahead of their catch-up games this weekend.
Turkish veteran striker Burak Yilmaz got the opener on the hour and compatriot Zeki Celik scrambled home a second at the death after Lille goalkeeper Mike Maignan had saved an early Metz penalty.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“We had a very sluggish start to the match,” Lille manager Christophe Galtier said. “We struggled to get the ball out. The desire to do well made us rush and we were wasteful. Mike kept us in the game by stopping the penalty.”
Yilmaz showed great experience, wrong-footing the Metz goalkeeper, and shooting hard and low inside the near post to score.
As they dug deep, Celik scrambled home a corner on 89 minutes to provide a harsh scoreline for the hosts.
Photo: AFP
Maignan saved a 17th-minute penalty, diving low to turn Aaron Leya Iseka’s spot-kick beyond the post.
This came after John Boye’s volley for Metz was goal-bound, but stopped on the line by defender Jose Fonte, who raised an arm to protect his face.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Photo: Reuters
Reuters, LONDON
Fulham manager Scott Parker praised his relegation-threatened side, even though a stoppage-time goal by Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Adama Traore condemned them to a 1-0 loss that left them mired in the bottom three of the Premier League.
Fulham are in 18th spot, three points behind Newcastle United, who have two games in hand, but Parker refused to find fault with his side.
“It’s a painful one. I’ve been involved in football for a long time and that’s a blow, obviously ... it’s a hard one to take, and we go again now,” he told BT Sport. “I’ve got nothing but full praise for my team — the effort, the fight, the desire they showed tonight was every bit of a team that care, that are desperate. In football and in the Premier League, sometimes you get hurt, and that’s what happened tonight.”
LA LIGA
AP, BARCELONA, Spain
Rafa Mir on Friday scored his second consecutive brace to lead SD Huesca to a 3-1 win over Elche, helping to lift his side out of the relegation zone in La Liga.
Huesca, who two rounds ago had been in last place, rose to 16th, while Elche fell into the bottom three spots slotted for the drop.
Mir, who is playing on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, also scored twice in a 2-0 win over Levante UD last round.
He has 12 goals in the league for the Huesca.
BUNDESLIGA
AP, BIELEFELD, Germany
DSC Arminia Bielefeld on Friday escaped the Bundesliga relegation zone with a 1-0 win over SC Freiburg, who were depleted by bans and COVID-19 restrictions.
Freiburg’s Baptiste Santamaria scored an own-goal in the 68th minute when Masaya Okugawa’s shot at a corner deflected off his head, leaving the goalkeeper too little time to react.
Bielefeld had plenty of more chances to score against a Freiburg team with one win from their past six away games.
Freiburg had three forwards out of the team. Vincenzo Grifo is in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 after returning from duty with Italy, while Ermedin Demirovic and Lukas Holer were suspended for the game after amassing too many yellow cards this season.
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