His good performance was not enough to win. Lille was eliminated in 16es finals of the Europa League after his defeat (2-1) Thursday, February 25 on the lawn of Ajax Amsterdam.
A week after being stifled at home by Ajax (1-2), LOSC, despite several changes in the starting XI, had a very good return match, but was not paid for its efforts. The Dutch, shaken by Lille, were very effective, scoring on their only opportunity in the first period by Davy Klaassen (15e minute).
The Mastiffs, admirable with envy, ended up equalizing on the penalty spot by Yusuf Yazici (78e) and pushed by snatching the overtime, but did not succeed. And by discovering each other, they offered spaces to the Batavians, who took advantage of it by David Neres (88e).
A year and a half after a double one-sided confrontation in the Champions League against the Amstellodamois (3-0, 2-0) despite interesting performances, the march was still a little too high for the leader of Ligue 1, who is however, fell arms in hand.
Ajax effective
In view of the next matches in the league against Strasbourg, Sunday, and Marseille on Wednesday, Christophe Galtier had created a surprise by leaving on the bench Benjamin André and Jonathan David for the benefit of Xeka and Timothy Weah, who occupied the front of the attack with Yazici . Despite these rotations, LOSC started the game very well and created two chances in quick succession, a center-shot from Weah was first deflected with the tip of the gloves by Maarten Stekelenburg, and in the process, the strike powerful de Xeka was pushed back to her line by Lisandro Martinez (4e).
Then Sven Botman did not frame his recovery from a corner (12e), Renato Sanches shot aside (13e) and, above all, a curled shot from Weah came to die at the foot of the Amsterdam left post (19e).
In the meantime, Ajax, though dominated by the Mastiffs, showed formidable efficiency by opening the scoring against the run of the game: on a free kick from Dusan Tadic, Klaassen got rid of the marking of Zeki Celik to score with a head. Lille protested to the referee for a flagrant obstruction on Botman, but video assistance did not intervene (1-0, 15e).
This goal restored confidence to the Dutch, who were less endangered than at the start of the meeting by valiant Lille, like Sanches, in all the right moves, or Weah, who again created a situation. by pressing the opposing defense, but his cross was countered (43e).
Missing penalty
Just before half-time, Lille should have benefited from a penalty for Antony’s foul on Sanches, but neither the referee nor the VAR saw fit to point it out (45e +1).
As soon as they returned from the locker room, Lille again created several successive situations, but Sanches did not frame (47e), Bamba did not press his shot enough against Stekelenburg (50e), which then captured a new attempt from Weah (54e). And when he was beaten, Sanches’ low shot grazed his right post (60e).
Ajax then woke up and Mike Maignan maintained the suspense by splendidly repelling a point blank attempt by Klaassen (67e) and a Neres shot (72e). Shortly after, Jonathan David got a penalty thanks to the intervention of the VAR and Yazici transformed him and restarted the meeting (1-1, 78e). The LOSC then rushed into the attack, but it was ultimately the Batavians who ended the debate by doubling the bet by Neres (88e) a return to the lead on the line.
