Metz vs Lille: Can league leaders steal a march on rest of pack?
Lille will hope to start widening the gap between themselves and the rest of the pack when they travel to face Metz on Friday evening.
Les Dogues finally have regained top spot thanks to their hard-fought win over PSG last round. That victory ended a 25-year long hoodoo for Lille in Paris, as they hadn’t won at PSG’s home ground since 1996. Interestingly, the player who scored their winning goal, Jonathan David, was born in 2000. Unfortunately, the young Canadian international suffered an injury shortly after scoring, and now will miss a few weeks due to a sprained ankle. Christophe Galtier will hope that the in-form Burak Yilmaz will be able to carry on and help Lille pick up another three points here in the absence of the talented youngster.
Lille’s recent win over PSG was even more impressive considering that Les Parisiens had dumped them out of the Coupe de France less than a month prior. Les Dogues also lost to relegation-threatened Nimes just before the latest international hiatus. As such, no one knew really what to expect from Galtier’s side, but they really impressed in last weekend’s potential title-deciding clash. The only blemish, perhaps, was the clash between Neymar and Tiago Djalo which resulted in two red cards, but Lille’s defense has been absolutely outstanding. They may not have the most potent attack – their 51 goals pales in comparison to PSG (67), Monaco (64), and Lyon (60) – but their back-line have shipped just 19 times all season. That’s certainly going to prove decisive when we head into the last moments of the 2020/2021 Ligue 1 campaign.
Lille’s away form is also excellent; Les Dogues have won eight of their last nine away Ligue 1 matches, while drawing the other. They’ve also kept clean sheets in seven of those, and that includes against PSG in last weekend’s match. Considering that upcoming opponents Metz recently shipped four in a catastrophic showing against Monaco, who are also hoping to challenge for the Ligue 1 title, Lille have a great chance to temporarily go six points clear of PSG before Les Parisiens face Strasbourg on Saturday.
Metz have been out of sorts for quite some time, to say the least. They’ve won just one of their last five in Ligue 1, and come into this game having lost back-to-back ties against Monaco, first in Ligue 1 (4-0) and then again in the Coupe de France on spot-kicks. Overall, they have won just two of their last 11 home Ligue 1 games and sit in ninth spot, seven behind fifth-placed Lens. However, if they can pull off what would be a shock upset against the current league leaders, they just may be able to start to force their way back into contention for a Europa League football spot.
Obviously, given that they’ve lost three in a row on home turf, that won’t be easy. Les Grenats may be hoping to take advantage of Lille’s injuries, especially with David being out at such a vital time, but Galtier’s men still have enough quality to get the job done and go six points clear – albeit just for about 24 hours – to put more pressure on reigning champs PSG to get things right on Saturday when they travel to face Strasbourg.
