On Sunday night in the French football league, Lille FC defeated Angers FC by 2-1 to win the Ligue 1 title. On the other hand, the league dominators, PSG, managed to finish 2nd in the table. Moreover, this was Lille’s first title win in the last ten years. They’ve also managed to win the league title in 1933, 1946 and 1954.
As for the Parisians, their last title defeat came in 2017 when AS Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe led his team to the title glory. However, PSG has won the previous seven league titles out of nine already.
On the other hand, Lille FC struggled to remain consistent throughout the whole season. Consequently, nobody expected them to win this year’s Ligue 1 title. But, their hard work and unbeaten performances against rivals like PSG and Lyon indeed paid off.
Lille’s previous season and how they managed to win the title?
Despite finishing 2nd in 2018-19 season and 4th in 2019-20 season, Lille FC were not favourites to win the title. However, Christophe Galtier’s team proved everyone wrong and ended up as the league champions. Moreover, his side also managed to remain at the top position for 18 out of 37 weeks.
Apart from this, the French club also conceded only 23 goals which is a brilliant defensive record. For instance, teams like Bayern Munich and Manchester City failed to concede less than 30 goals in their domestic leagues.
As for now, Lille FC’s goalkeeper Mike Maignan is set to join the Serie A giants AC Milan on a permanent deal. Moreover, a huge rising talent, Boubakary Soumare, is also linked with a Leicester City move.
However, the biggest surprise was indeed the consistent performances from Turkish striker Burak Yilmaz. The 35-year old striker also bagged six goals in his last five matches for Lille FC. As a result, he was also nominated for Ligue 1’s Player of the Season Award.
Lastly, PSG would try to forget this season as they failed to win the league title and lost in UEFA Champions League Semifinals.
