There are evenings where everything comes together well. This is exactly what LOSC experienced this Sunday. At home, the Mastiffs did not give up against a valiant Paris FC and were able to achieve a valuable success in the standings (4-2). Indeed, by taking advantage of the poor results of their opponents and with this deserved victory against the Ile-de-France residents, Lille climbs to fourth place. In addition to the accounting aspect, this success at home also allowed Olivier Giroud to redo his cherry. In difficulty for months and after a three-month drought in Ligue 1, the 39-year-old striker found a smile again this Sunday.
Aligned at the forefront of the attack in a duo with Hamza Igamane, the 2018 world champion showed that he was a world-class attacker. In all the good moves of his team, Giroud was a providential relay for his team and was quickly rewarded. Found on the edge of the area, the former AC Milan player shifted Perraud to the left side before being found in the area. From point blank range, the northern number 9 did not need to be asked and scored his first goal in the elite since August 24. Still as valuable in the game and forming an interesting complementarity with Igamane, Giroud was rewarded at the end of the match with a double from the penalty spot in the 76th minute of play. A first double with Lille for Giroud, which allowed LOSC to claim a nice victory in the standings.
Olivier Giroud is in heaven
Obviously, the smile was present on Giroud’s lips after the match. Questioned by Ligue 1+, the native of Chambéry did not hide his joy after this perfect evening and gave encouraging signals after his first cohabitation with Hamza Igamane: “ I waited for this one, it had been a few matches since the cages had been a little small. These are cycles. It’s a great relief when success returns, efficiency. Tonight, we had a lot of chances. I slightly miss the one where Kevin Trapp makes a superb save. We had a lot of situations, we had to wait until the second half. I’m a competitor, I’m demanding, Félix (Correia) is a great center for me… lack of success. But I felt good tonight. I’m happy for the team, we worked well during this break, with the guys coming back a little late, it’s never easy. I hope this is the start of a good series. We had a big challenge to make in the rankings, we will try to hang on to the three, to give them a hard time. It was important from an accounting point of view to pick things up. I felt very good with Hamza tonight, but just as I felt good with another player who can play more of an attacking midfielder. Hamza is an attacker, but he likes to take off, participate in the game, put in a lot of movement. The coach repeats that movement is important, he doesn’t mind if we occupy different zones, but on the condition that all zones are occupied on the pitch. This evening, we did quite well, it’s an encouraging first. It’s good for us and for the staff to have several strings to our bow. »
A happiness found in the Lille locker room. Indeed, proud of his tactical choice to align his two attackers, Bruno Genesio necessarily made an aside about Giroud. He wanted to salute the great professionalism of his veteran, always so serious in training: “I’m happy. Olivier is the top scorer for the French team, even today. It’s not trivial and it shows the great player he is. This period was not easy mentally. Those are the times when you’re a big scorer and you don’t score, that’s the price of glory. He didn’t give up, he trained like a great professional. If we asked him to do less in training, he was always at the end of himself. He didn’t doubt and he was rewarded. This is an example. We are lucky to have a player like that in our ranks. Young people need to benefit from it, it will give them a few years of experience like that. »
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