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Lille’s goalscoring problems returned in the Champions’ League last night as they were held to their third goalless draw of the campaign against Benfica at the Stade de France.
Claude Puel’s team started the evening second in Group D and, despite firing blanks once again, they have not slipped in the standings. The evening’s other game between Manchester United and Villarreal also ended in stalemate, which means Lille go into the final round of matches in the qualifying positions.
However, such is the tightness of the section, they could still end up bottom if they lose against Villarreal in Spain.
If Lille do fail to qualify they will look to tonight’s game as a missed opportunity. They dominated for long periods against a Benfica side bereft of confidence without their star player Simao. Fabrizio Miccoli, who scored the winner when these sides met in Lisbon, started the game in attack with Nuno Gomes, but was not fully fit and limped out of the action before half-time.
Lille, meanwhile, looked the more likely team to score throughout. Milenko Acimovic and Matt Moussilou were a constant threat to the Benfica defence, but both were guilty of lacking composure in front of goal. Milenko Ačimovič’s long-range effort was easily saved by Quim early on.
The Slovenian ace then raced onto a Jean Makoun pass on 25 minutes but, after jinking inside Anderson, struck a tame shot. Moussilou then slipped past Anderson with a clever drag-back but lifted his head and shot high over the bar.
The best chance of the first half fell to Moussilou. The French striker latched on to a superb Ačimovič pass, but took far too long to get his shot away and the chance was gone.
Lille upped the ante after the break, but, for all their pressure, they struggled to create clear chances. The French side almost snapped victory in the last 10 minutes when Benfica failed to clear a corner. The ball dropped for Mathieu Bodmer whose driven effort was parried by Quim, but when the rebound bounced into Geoffrey Dernis’ path he failed to keep his shot down.
Mantorras could have sealed an unlikely Benfica win with the last kick of the game, but he skied his shot wastefully over the crossbar from close range.
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