|
Lille warmed up for their Champions’ League clash against Benfica in excellent fashion on Saturday, grabbing a much-needed win over Metz thanks to two Peter Odemwingie strikes.
Without a win since the opening day of the season, Claude Puel’s team started in tentative fashion, but their superior quality slowly started to tell, and they duly wrapped up the points with two second-half goals. Ludovic Obraniak was later sent off for Metz, who are still looking for their first League win of what looks like turning into a long campaign.
Odemwingie was in lively form all evening and, after Obraniak had deflected the ball against his own post in the opening moments, Lille’s Nigerian striker was soon testing the home defence with his pace.
Grégory Wimbée twice had to be at his best to deny Odemwingie in the first half, but he could to little to keep him out five minutes into the second period.
Geoffrey Dernis crossed from the left and, as the Metz defenders hesitated, Odemwingie nipped into the space to head emphatically past the Metz ‘keeper. It was the same drill again 10 minutes. Dernis escaped his marker on the left and when his cross deflected into the path of the Lille goalscorer, Odemwingie sealed the points with a clinical toe-poke.
Obraniak took his frustration out on one of Lille’s two Swiss recruits Stefan Lichtsteiner and was shown a red card on 69 minutes. For all Metz’s determination late in the game, they did not possess the quality with 10 men to get back into the game and Lille headed north with the three points.
|
