Brest blow for Lille | OneFootball

An early Tjago Djalo own-goal and Steve Mounié's late penalty gave Brest a 2-0 win over Ligue 1 Uber Eats champions Lille on Saturday to slow the northerners' momentum and give the Breton hosts a first top-flight win in five matches.

THE MATCH

Lille had picked up quite a head of steam having gone unbeaten since their defeat at Paris Saint-Germain on 29 October, but though they had coach Jocelyn Gourvennec back on the sidelines after he missed the midweek win over Lorient due to COVID-19, the visitors had the wind very quickly sucked from their sails in Brittany.

Jérémy Le Douaron found Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel on the right — his low cross was met by Tjago Djalo, but the Portugal U21 international miscued his clearance, sending the ball past a stunned Ivo Grbic to hand the hosts the ideal start (3').

After a spectacular run of six straight league wins, Brest had picked up just a point from their previous four league matches, and their fragile self-confidence might have cracked had Jonathan David not met his match in Marco Bizot, the Brest goalkeeper parrying the Canada international's driven effort (7').

USMNT forward Timothy Weah started along with David and Burak Yilmaz, who met a Djajo cross only to see Bizot deny him too (13'), but LOSC were not as sharp in the final third as Gourvennec would have liked as he sought to ease his team ahead of Rennes and into fifth place provisionally.

Pierre-Gabriel produced a last-gasp block to deny Yilmaz (41') and Bizot's sharp reflexes kept out David (45+1') as the hosts frustrated the champions. They would have added to that frustration had Grbic not thrown himself full length to his right to turn a Romain Faivre shot around the post (65').

New signing Hatem ben Arfa replaced Yilmaz 13 minutes from time, making his first top-flight appearance since his last — with Bordeaux — 265 days ago. The former Lyon, Marseille, Nice, PSG and Rennes midfielder very nearly produced a piece of trademark magic — connecting with a cross only to see Bizot brilliantly stop his low first-time shot (88') — but could not prevent his seventh French club from suffering a setback ahead of his Round 23 reunion with PSG on 6 February.

With Lille pushing forward, they were caught on the counter-attack in added time. Zeki Celik's clumsy challenge on Franck Honorat ended the hosts' raid, but also resulted in a penalty, which Mounié tucked away unfussily to give Brest a welcome three points (90+5').

THE PLAYER: Marco Bizot

The Dutch goalkeeper arrived at Brest from AZ Alkmaar in the summer, and has repaid the faith Michel Der Zakarian has shown in making him first-choice in place of Gautier Larsonneur. His save from Ben Arfa with time running out was a dagger in Les Dogues' hearts.

THE STAT: 10

This was Brest's first win over the defending French champions in 13 attempts and nearly 10 years. Their previous victory over the reigning title winners had come versus Lille in April 2012.

>> STATATTACK: Hatem ben Arfa's genius