The Lille coach takes stock after his team qualified for the Europa League play-offs on Thursday.
“It feels good to find joy again”admitted Bruno Genesio, the coach of Lille, who won his first success of the year against Friborg on Thursday (1-0) to go to the Europa League play-offs. After five defeats in as many matches played, Losc finally launched 2026 thanks to a penalty scored by Olivier Giroud during the last action of the match (90th + 2) at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium. The Northerners will play play-offs for the round of 16 of the Europa League against Celta Vigo or Red Star Belgrade, two opponents they have already faced this season, on February 19 and 26.
Enough to make his trainer Bruno Genesio smile again: “It was important in this competition to qualify by winning and if possible by showing a face like we like to see from this teamhe said. These three criteria were present this evening since we had a good match.” The Lyonnais was particularly pleased to have found the “virtues a little lost” of his team, referring to the lack of fighting spirit in recent meetings. “We had the return of our captain (Benjamin André, Editor’s note) who is our leader in this area, and of Hakon Haraldsson compared to the last match”he added.
If we want to return to areas in the championship where we want to be, we will have to have continuity.
Bruno Genesio
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Among the satisfactions of the evening, there was “defensive solidity, in the ability to press high almost the entire match”he continued: “We recovered balls high (on the field, Editor’s note). And then in the offensive animation, even if I found that in the first half, we had been too little dangerous compared to the control we had shown, in the second, it was a little better. But Genesio, who also gives himself some fresh air with this victory, knows that “it is not an end in itself”: “We are qualified, we won, but everything is not settledhe tempered. If we want to return to areas in the championship where we want to be, we will have to have continuity. Lille are fifth in the Ligue 1 table before facing fourth-placed Lyon on Sunday.
