Lille vs Bastia. French Ligue 1.
LOSC Lille MetropoleAttendance33,558.
Saturday 27 September 2014 21:45, UK
Divock Origi's first-half strike was enough to give Lille an uninspiring 1-0 win over Bastia that lifted them up to second in Ligue 1.
Rene Girard's men suffered their first defeat of the domestic campaign against Nice in midweek but bounced back at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy on Saturday night.
Their victory will hardly send shock waves through the division but they were at least able to maintain a good start to the season and move above Paris St Germain, who were earlier held to a 1-1 draw at Toulouse.
Following a cagey opening, Lille enjoyed a bit of sustained pressure which ended with a Ryan Mendes effort at goal narrowly missing the left post, with Alphonse Areola seemingly beaten.
Bastia came to life shortly after as Floyd Ayite combined well with Christopher Maboulou on the right before shooting although his effort was harmless enough.
The visitors came closest to opening the scoring when Juan Pablo Pino did superbly well in finding Maboulou, who broke into the penalty area before shooting, with Franck Beria doing well to recover and get in a goal-saving block.
It was to prove a crucial save as Lille took the lead in the 39th minute in some style.
Origi picked up the ball on the right before cutting inside and hammered a left-footed 20-yard effort into the bottom corner beyond Areola.
The on-loan Liverpool forward came close after the interval after benefiting from some good work by Jonathan Delaplace but his shot from a tight angle inside the area was turned away for a corner by Areola.
Lille continued to push forward in search of an elusive second goal and Franck Beria was denied by Areola, who was beaten by Cape Verde international Ryan Mendes' strike which flew inches wide of the post.
While the hosts were unable to kill the game off, they were rarely threatened by Bastia in the second half and held on comfortably to claim all three points.