10 March 2018: the State Pierre Mauroy, home of Lille OSC, was the scene of a second-half pitch invasion during a 1-1 draw with Montpellier that saw the safety of players from both sides called into serious question.
Players such as Nicolas Pepe and Yassine Benzia were shown on live television to be greatly distressed as they found themselves as to be the target of significant fan aggression, while other players were barracked on their return to the dressing rooms.
The discontent had been brewing for some time, with the team two points shy of a survival spot in Ligue 1 and the club shrouded in deep financial turmoil from the moment the then-owner Gerard Lopez assumed control the previous year.
Accruing debt following the excessive spend during Marcelo Bielsa’s managerial reign and his eventual claim for wrongful dismissal only exacerbated their economic worries.
Fast forward just over three years and Lille have earned a priceless victory away to current-champions Paris Saint-Germain to move three points clear at the summit of Ligue 1 to put their title destiny firmly into their own hands with seven games remaining of the season - courtesy of an incredibly efficient team performance, masterminded by one of the top French coaches in Christophe Galtier.
Galtier, after an eight-year stint in charge of Saint-Étienne, was three months into the job at the time of the 2018 pitch invasion, a nadir that saw them subsequently recover to stay up in the penultimate game of the season with a 3-2 victory over Toulouse.
From this point, their rise has been nothing short of remarkable. There has been no hint of mid-table consolidation.
The 2018/19 season saw Lille finish second to secure a return to Champions League after a seven-year absence, which was followed by a fourth-placed finish after the club had sold two of their key forwards in Pepe and Rafael Leão for large profits.
They currently have their best points total after 31 games in the era of three points for a win. The fact that from the 26 teams in Ligue 1 history with at least this total, 21 have been confirmed champions, implies that it is very much Lille’s crown to lose now.
Last Saturday’s victory in the capital represents a pivotal moment in the swing of the title pendulum, in a game that represented all of Lille’s resolute qualities this season in microcosm.
Despite having exited the Coupe de France at the hands of their Parisian title rivals before the international break with a largely convincing 3-0 defeat, Les Dogues showed no signs of letting memories from that encounter phase them. Having weathered a tricky opening quarter of the game, they became the more settled side, boosted by their pacey counter-attacking threat.
That is not to say that Galtier was without his own selection dilemmas in the game build-up, his hand being forced through late withdrawals to Turkish starters Yusuf Yazıcı and Zeki Çelik.
Their respective replacements - Tiago Djaló, a young centre-back asked to cover Çelik’s right-back spot and Boubakary Soumaré – proved worthy of Galtier’s trust for such a critical game, the former an obdurate opponent for a frustrated Kylian Mbappe whose attacks were largely stifled on the left wing.
Lille’s collective endeavours and outstanding work off the ball nullified PSG’s goal-threat, epitomised by the fact that out of the Champions’ 16 attempted shots on Lille’s goal, only three were on target.
Their break came in the 20th minute after Jonathan David received a cross from his strike partner Jonathan Ikone, dispatching a deflected shot beyond the reach of Keylor Navas for the Canadian’s tenth goal of the season.
Despite losing David to injury in the second-half, Lille nearly extended their lead as Burak Yılmaz had a close-range effort parried as Galtier’s game-plan to frustrate their opponents was superbly executed.
Neymar cutting the most irritable presence on the field before his stoppage-time red card as PSG’s creativity ran out of steam and Lille saw out the second-half comfortably.
Lille have now kept clean sheets in just over half of their domestic fixtures this season. Such resilience and collective organisation will be required of this team until the very end, though, if they are to achieve the improbable and earn their first Championship title in a decade.
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