French champions Lille were made to pay for failing to take their chances as Angers scored late on to peg back the Ligue 1 Uber Eats title-holders in a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
THE MATCH
Lille had picked up their first UEFA Champions League win of the season in Seville in midweek, but Jocelyn Gourvennec's men would have been wary of an Angers side that had won on three visits to the Stade Pierre Mauroy since their return to the top flight in 2015/16.
Ex-Lille man Sofiane Boufal announced the visitors' positive intentions to improve on their run of one win in their last eight league games when he fired a free-kick goalwards that was gathered by Ivo Grbic (13'), and had there been a white shirt to connect with Angelo Fulgini's cutback, the hosts might have been in trouble (15').
The individual quality was in the Lille ranks though and the resurgent Renato Sanches helped them seize the initiative. The Portugal international's free-kick was bent expertly into the Angers penalty area, and with the visitors failing to execute their offside trap correctly, Tiago Djalo was able to scoop the ball past Danijel Petkovic (26').
Petkovic was making his first appearance of the season in place of the ill Paul Bernardoni, and the Montenegrin was called into action by a Burak Yilmaz free-kick (34') before his opposite number Grbic tipped over a Souleymane Doumbia drive (40').
A Yilmaz-led counter-attack might have led to the second goal Lille required to feel comfortable had Enzo Ebosse — a late inclusion in the starting XI for Ismaël Traoré — not blocked Jonathan Ikoné's shot (60') as Gourvennec grew increasingly frustrated with his side's inability to put the game to bed.
That frustration went up a notch when Reinildo only prevented Mohamed-Ali Cho from equalising by blocking the Angers substitute's shot by throwing himself in the path of the ball, which ricocheted to safety off the back of the Mozambique defender's head (70').
Petkovic then quite brilliantly denied Yusuf Yazici, somehow turning the Turkey international's shot over the crossbar when the Lille substitute had seemed destined to score following a fabulous run by Jonathan Bamba (73'), and the value of the stop was doubled soon after when Angers levelled.
Billal Brahimi had been on the pitch just two minutes when he moved down the left, exchanged passes with Boufal and picked out Azzedine Ounahi, who sidefooted beyond Grbic to extend Angers' away scoring streak to eight games (83').
Lille still might have won it, but Yilmaz's footing betrayed him when he was unmarked inside the Angers box (90+5') and he saw his shot to Timothy Weah's pass balloon harmlessly over the bar. Amadou Onana's red card for a reckless lunge at Jimmy Cabot (90+7') was the icing on an unpalatable cake for the champions, who left the pitch to boos.
THE PLAYER: Danijel Petkovic
The Angers goalkeeper has been in France since he joined Lorient in 2017. He had only made two top-flight appearances since moving to Angers in 2019, and did not play at all in the first team last season. And yet, the 28-year-old looked razor-sharp as he gave his side a chance to get something from the game, and Yazici will be wondering how he didn't score for quite some time.
THE STAT: 50
This was Jonathan David's 50th Ligue 1 game.
