Lille secured their place in the knockout phase of the Europa League with a clinical performance to defeat Slavia Prague by two goals in their Group B encounter at the Metropole.
Yohan Cabaye opened the scoring after 25 minutes and Gervinho netted six minutes before half-time to put Lille firmly in control.
Stanislav Vicek gave Slavia hope when he found the target after 56 minutes but Ludovic Obraniak eased any lingering nerves when he converted 10 minutes from time.
The Ligue 1 side needed to match or better Genoa's result against Valencia, with the Serie A side eventually going down 2-1 to a last-minute winner.
Both teams started aggressively, Peter Grajciar and Antonio Mavuba trading long-range attempts at goal inside the first four minutes.
But there was nothing clear-cut until the 24th minute, when an Obraniak corner made its way to Cabaye who sent his 12-yard shot high into the net.
Grajciar tested Mickael Landreau as the Czech side tried to draw level, while Petra Janda also worked the French goalkeeper with a 34th-minute shot.
Soon after Deniss Romanovs saved comfortably from Gervinho but within two minutes the Ivorian had doubled the lead, getting on the end of Pierre-Alain Frau's cross to steer home from six yards.
Romanovs stopped it getting any worse in first-half stoppage time when he stopped Frau's placed effort.
Slavia came out after the interval in better shape, Janda going close with a drilled effort from 25 yards, before Vicek reduced the arrears.
Janda was the provider this time, feeding the veteran striker who sent a right-footed shot past Landreau from 12 yards.
With the Genoa game level at the time, the home side were looking for another goal to remove any doubt and it came when Florent Balmont teed up Obraniak, who powered his shot into the top corner.
There was little action of note in the closing 10 minutes, with the result - and final group standings - now certain.
No comments:
Post a Comment