FC Lorient

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 LOSC Lille Métropole

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Rudi Garcia's side were once again involved in a thrill-a-minute encounter when they slipped to a 5-4 defeat at home to Girondins de Bordeaux last Sunday. Following their 5-4 loss to Olympique de Marseille in the Trophée des Champions and a 4-4 draw with OGC Nice just before Christmas, it was the champions' third high-scoring contest this season, and a third such occasion without a victory come the final whistle.

Garcia: "Too many individual mistakes"

"How many goals do we have to score to get at least a point?" grumbled Garcia after the defeat, provoked in large part by two goals, including a 93rd-minute winner, from ex-Lille midfielder Ludovic Obraniak, who joined Bordeaux in January. "There were lots of things I liked, positive points. To come back from 4-1 down to 4-4 is no mean feat." He added: "We showed that we were able to do some good things going forward, but it wasn't the fact that we were too attacking that did for us. It was the fact we made too many individual mistakes."

Those errors were not quite enough to see Lille relinquish third place in the table as closest rivals, Olympique Lyonnais, also lost and Marseille did not play, but it did leave the champions' title defence in the balance. Though they have a game in hand, Lille are now ten points behind second-placed Montpellier Hérault SC and a further point adrift of leaders Paris Saint-Germain, a sizeable gap even if it could be closed this weekend with first playing second on Sunday. "The title has never been an objective as we don't have the means," claimed Garcia. "As we've never seriously thought about it, we've not lost anything. We want to finish in the top three. We've got to perform over the coming matches."

Recent history points to a 1-1

The initial test of whether the wounds of last weekend's damaging defeat are healing comes in Brittany where Lille have won just once in six Ligue 1 visits. The last two games, including their Week 8 encounter this season, have ended 1-1, but Garcia will undoubtedly be quick to remind his players that Lorient were swept aside 6-3 in northern France midway through last season.

Christian Gourcuff will also be mindful of that loss, and with only Montpellier having scored more goals than Lille, the Lorient coach will be well-advised to warn his team to be on their guard. Les Merlus have, however, been generally solid and difficult to break down this season. Though they have struggled for goals - only Breton neighbours Stade Brestois 29 have hit the net fewer times - only six teams in the division have conceded fewer times. Their 1-1 draw at AJ Auxerre last weekend after playing with ten men for 70 minutes after goalkeeper Fabien Audard was sent off attested to their never-say-die attitude.

Four L1 draws in row for Lorient

"We started poorly, and even though we had a lot of the ball, we weren't dangerous," said Gourcuff, who saw Innocent Emeghara score an equaliser in the dying seconds of the game to earn his team a fourth successive league draw. "Even though they had chances to score a second, we believed in ourselves right to the end. The point doesn't do much for our league position, but it certainly does help our morale."

After standing in for Audard and producing a number of excellent saves, 20-year-old goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte will again be the last line of defence for his team, whose sole home defeat this season came against Lyon in Week 17. Gourcuff will be hoping Yann Jouffre, who has three goals and five assists this season, can play some part after returning to training earlier this week after an adductor problem.

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