10-man OGC Nice played a thriller at the Stade Metropole in Week 19 of the 2011/2012 Ligue 1 Championnat as the visitors held reigning champions LOSC Lille to a 4-4 draw in one of the games of this season.
Les Dogues boss Rudi Garcia had said ahead of the game against Nice that his side needed to finish the calendar year on 38 points which would have been three more points than they had achieved in the last season at this time.
At that time, Lille went on to become the champions of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ludovic-Obraniak-c22623 chest with his chest and rifled an unstoppable volley beyond David
Ospina of Lille to score the goal that could have been the winner.
However, this was not going to be the only goal of the game as the visitors did their best to assure both sides’ fans of a thrilling encounter. Both halves of the game saw 41 shots aimed at both goalkeepers and Nice certainly deserved to come out with their
second away point of the campaign.
This was Nice coach Rene Marsiglia’s first return to Lille as a coach. The Frenchman played for Les Dogues from 1978 to 1973 and has only recently taken over the coaching http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Job-c18684 of Nice.
Lille took the lead in the ninth minute of the game when an Aurelien Chedjou shot deflected off http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Hellebuyck-c10500 corner
was not saved by a full-stretched http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mickaël-Landreau-c25513.
This was Civelli’s third goal of the campaign and Lille’s 10th goal through a set-piece.
However, Joe Cole restored Lille’s advantage as the game approached the half hour mark. Following a great one-two with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-c10409 Rozenhal, the Englishman’s diagonal shot went past Ospina. This was Cole’s third goal of the campaign and it looked like that Lille
were on course to maintain their unbeaten record in the league.
However, Nice had plans of their own thanks to Franck Dja Djedje. In the final ten minutes of the half, the Ivorian took his goal tally of the season from one to three goals. First the 25-year-old met Eric Mouloungui’s cross to level scores. Later on, the
Gabonese’s low shot was saved by Landreau. However, Djedje slotted the ball in the net to give Nice a surprising lead.
However, the second half proved to be even more exciting than the first one. Civelli came agonisingly close to making it 4-2 for Nice but the unmarked Argentine failed to find the net.
Chances continued to flow for Garcia’s side as Obraniak and then http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dimitri-Payet-c11276 came close to making it 3-3.
Another twist to the game was to be seen when Mouloungui was sent off after seeing yellow for the second time in the game. The 10-man disadvantage gave Lille a great chance of equalising the game.
In the 76th minute, a trademark Lille passing move involving http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Moussa-Sow-c26939 and Obraniak resulted in Hazard scoring a goal that made it 3-3.
Florent Balmont then scored a goal in the final moments of the game and it looked like Lille were on course to another three points. However, Rudi Garcia was to be disappointed when Francois Clerc scored in the fourth minute of added time to make it 4-4.
The end of an amazing game now means that Nice are now out of the relegation zone while Lille stay in third place after Lyon failed to register a win against Valenciennes.
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