Montpellier vs Lille. French Ligue 1.
Stade de la MossonAttendance10,635.
Saturday 7 February 2015 21:47, UK
Lille claimed an overdue Ligue 1 victory by ending Montpellier's four-match unbeaten run with a 2-1 triumph at the Stade de la Mosson.
Les Dogues had not won any of their last four games in all competitions, with their poor form in the autumn restricting Rene Girard's team to a place in the bottom half of the table.
However, goals from Nolan Roux and Marcos Lopes in either half boosted Lille into 10th place, while Bryan Dabo's stoppage-time strike arrived too late to help Montpellier alter the destination of the points.
Roux's opener arrived after only eight minutes as he turned the ball home after Geoffrey Jourdren had punched Idrissa Gueye's snapshot back into play.
Montpellier dominated the rest of the first half but could not put any of their chances away, with Lucas Barrios enjoying the best opportunities.
Vincent Enyeama made a good reflex save on Barrios' volley on 29 minutes while, shortly before the break, Dabo saw his cross to the Paraguay international slapped away by Lille's goalkeeper.
LOSC doubled their lead in the 53rd minute, with Lopes controlling Sebastien Corchia's cross before beating Jourdren with a close-range finish off his left boot.
The visitors could not find goal number three through either Gueye or Divock Origi and saw their advantage halved two minutes into time added on.
A long ball from the back by Djamel Bakar was headed into the path of Dabo by Barrios, and the former Blackburn loanee gladly volleyed the ball past Enyeama.
It was a first home defeat since early December for Rolland Courbis' Europe-chasing Montpellier, who recently broke into the top six by stringing three wins together at the start of 2015.
