France International Dimitri Payet was thrilled by the staggering display from his side as the home-side overcame first leg deficit to oust FC Copenhagen from making it to the Champions League’s group stages
The return leg saw Rudi Garcia’s men fighting for Champion’s League spot after having conceived a goal last week at Denmark in the away leg. The normal time saw Lille scoring a thriller to overcome the deficit of the previous leg. The match however, reached
its logical conclusion in the extra time.
The extremely delighted winger was mesmerized by the terrific display shown by Lille as he said, “We were determined to change the direction of the tie after the first leg, when we were lacking in a lot of departments. Wednesday, we played well at both ends
and in the tackles, so it is logical that we qualified.”
However, this was not the only reason behind his utter jubilance. The 25-year-old saw his defenders rising to the occasion and ensuring a clean sheet which had been lacking in the previous matches. Manager Rudi Garcia was in particular concerned about the
lapses in Lille’s defense in recent times.
Rudi Garcia held the view that if his team’s performance was up to the scratch then he sees no reason why his team cannot turn the tide on Copenhagen.
And this is exactly what the team did as Payet added, “we had to be patient, we knew that if we scored once we would have extra time and perhaps penalties in order to qualify, so we were patient and we were rewarded for our efforts. We worked very hard and
we are through.”
The newly built Grand Stade at Lille was fully sold out despite the sluggish performance of Les Dogues in recent times. This meant that the fans were still behind the team and this was something Payet cherished a lot.
“It is great [to have won the first European match at the new stadium], particularly as it was a very difficult match and there was a lot of pressure surrounding this match” added Payet, as he was quoted on the Uefa website.
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