Rene Girard’s men beat LOSC Lille 1-0 at home to leave them needing just one point in their last game to lift their first Ligue 1 Championelle
Young Karim Ait-Fana turned out to be the saviour and a hero as he scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win over Lille. The goal was scored in the final stages of added time and the result now leaves La Paillade needing just a point in the final game
of the season in which they face already-relegated http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/AJ-Auxerre-c38247.
Ahead of the game, Rene Girard and co knew that a win will all but seal Montpellier’s chances of becoming French champions. In the other game, that took place at the same time, Paris Saint-Germain played Stade Rennais.
Though the Parisians won comfortably in the capital, the league leaders were struggling to get an elusive goal that would take them one step closer to winning the Ligue 1 title.
Shorn of the talent of Younes Belhanda, Montpellier were forced to look at other options for creativity and it was young Remy Cabella who made sure that the Moroccan wasn’t missed. After a great one-two with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Souleymane-Camara-c33845, the youngster unleashed an
explosive shot that was bravely blocked by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mathieu-Debuchy-c24682 who might be playing his last game for Les Dogues next week.
Ironically, Lille came to the Mosson as the champions while Montpellier were the contenders/pretenders, it seemed that Rene Girard’s men were far more accustomed to the pressure situation than their northern counterparts.
Lille made a number of unforced errors but Montpellier failed to capitalise on a plethora of openings. Jamel Saihi’s shot went way over the crossbar when it should have at least tested http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mickaël-Landreau-c25513.
Earlier this season, Rudi Garcia’s men had already lost 1-0 to Montpellier at the Metropole and it seemed that things might not change much. The south-westerners have certainly added a lot of solidity in the defence and Lille were given a thorough demonstration
of this.
In the second half, Lille came out the stronger of the two side but it didn’t last much as Montpellier once again took the game by the scruff of the neck as Cabella, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Camara-c8277 and Olivier Giroud combined well to pile up the pressure on the visitors.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Eden-Hazard-c11863, who a couple of days tearfully admitted that he was going to leave France, was very much subdued. However, the youngster did manage to produce one moment of brilliance. However, the youngster’s moment of brilliance was denied by a smart save
from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Geoffrey-Jourdren-c14538.
15 minutes before normal time, Camara was replaced by Karim Ait-Fana. The youngster was to be the hero of the night. A Vitorino http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hilton-c16219 header was saved by Landreau but the rebound was guided in by Ait-Fana in the 4th minute of injury time to give
Montpellier what is likely to be an historic win.
Next up, Girard’s men meet Auxerre and just a point would assure them of a deserved title.
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