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Nantes earned a much needed victory at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy to leave Lille facing an uphill climb to achieve their objectives this season.
Lille 0-1 Nantes
With both sides struggling in front of goal this season it is no surprise that there was just one goal separating the teams on Tuesday evening.
It was an early strike that settled the game; Jules Iloki put Les Canaris ahead after just five minutes when he converted Adrien Thomasson’s cross. This was in Nantes’ first attack of the match and it was enough to take all three points back to the west coast.
Lille dominated the match after the goal with large spells of possession but lacked the creativity and clinical finishing as they have all season.
A number of wayward efforts and the failure to take chances from the home side allowed Nantes to keep their fourth clean sheet of the season and earn their first away win in this Ligue 1 campaign.
The win sees Nantes leapfrog Lille in the table and rise to 14th ahead of a difficult test at Nice on Saturday; a side who are scoring for fun at the moment.
Les Dogues have now dropped to 16th just three points above the relegation zone and are on the end of back-to-back defeats for the first time this season.
They face a very different game on Friday evening at home to Montpellier who have just won their first game of the campaign. There is now a shift in the confidence levels of both sides and Lille will go into the game knowing a defeat could see them fall into the bottom three.
