Xeka scored the only goal of the game 13 minutes from time as reigning French champions Lille beat Montpellier 1-0 on Saturday to move to within touching distance of the top four in the Ligue 1 Uber Eats table.
MONTPELLIER 0-1 LILLE
THE MATCH
Following back-to-back losses to Brest and Paris Saint-Germain, Lille were looking to bounce back, though a Montpellier side that had an impressive home record — and had lost three of their last four themselves — were also on a quest to keep their top-four hopes alive.
Jocelyn Gourvennec made some bold choices to his starting XI after last weekend's 5-1 loss to PSG with Burak Yilmaz and Hatem ben Arfa both dropping down to the bench, and they watched Montpellier captain Téji Savanier run the show.
Back after a three-game ban, Savanier tested Léo Jardim — another of Gourvennec's bold choices, drafted in following Ivo Grbic's shaky showing against PSG — early on (4'), and the Brazilian goalkeeper was busy in only his third league appearance of the season and his first since 14 August.
Lille mustered little before the break with Jonathan David firing over (33') as the Canada international sought — but failed — to stop a four-game goalless streak turning into five. Zeki Celik (34') and Tjago Djalo (43') both tried to beat Jonas Omlin — at least Lille, who had conceded at least once in their last 13 league away games, had kept the hosts out at the break.
They were to end that long wait — leaving Bordeaux and Brest as the only teams in the top flight yet to keep a clean sheet in 2021/22 — and also claimed the three points that moved them ahead of their opponents and to within four points of fourth-placed Strasbourg.
There was a big dose of fortune about the goal: Benjamin André's shot was half-blocked by Mamadou Sakho, but the ball ricocheted invitingly for Xeka, who smashed a shot high beyond Omlin (77').
His second goal of the season might only have been good for a point but for VAR as replays told referee Stéphanie Frappart she should not have awarded a penalty when André and Savanier collided in the box (84').
THE PLAYER: Léo Jardim
The 26-year-old has been in the sizeable shadow of Grbic so far this season having played the opening two league matches of the campaign before the Croatian arrived on loan from Atletico Madrid. He certainly stepped into the limelight at the Stade de la Mosson with a number of good saves to calm the hosts' ardours in the crucial early exchanges, without which his team could have been out of the game by half-time.
THE STAT: 1
This was Montpellier's third successive home league defeat to Lille, a club first.
>> PODCAST: Le Beau Jeu, the official Ligue 1 podcast in English
