Rudi Garcia’s side were simply the best in France this season, and they earned a well deserved title success after playing some of the most delightful football seen in France for years.
The French title race was unpredictable for so long. The first half of the season saw a number of teams leading the way; Toulouse intermittently, St. Etienne, Rennes, even newly promoted Brest at one point. But then, after a 6-3 thrashing of Lorient, Les Dogues moved top of the pile and though Marseille briefly climbed above them last month, their position has rarely looked in doubt since.
It was somewhat fitting too, that it was a crushing win over Lorient that marked Lille’s ascension to the top of Ligue 1. This was the team after all, whom they had lost 2-1 against on the last day of last season, as they were agonisingly pipped to the third Champions League spot by Auxerre in the dying moments of the campaign.
Not again.
This season, a renewed determination propelled Garcia’s men forward, fresh from the memory of last season’s last day capitulation. This time there was to be no late collapse. This Lille side were on a mission to prove that they had learned from last year, that they wouldn’t crumble when the pressure started to mount, and that they could kill off their opponents.
That they did this so convincingly owed much to their brilliant attacking triumvirate. Eden Hazard rightly takes most of the plaudits, his brilliant 35 yard strike at Marseille in March setting Lille on their way to a huge 2-1 win. A last minute winner clinched the points for them that day in the Stade Velodrome, and it marked the point where you realised this team could really do it this season. That they were not the pushovers they may have been before. This was no longer ‘little’ Lille. They were men.
Hazard has deservedly walked off with the French Player of the Year award, but his efforts would have been irrelevant were it not for the brilliance of his partners in crime, Gervinho and Moussa Sow. Senegalese forward Sow is the top scorer in the league with 22 goals, and he has often been on hand to poach a goal when they really needed it, whilst Gervinho has similarly been a frequent scorer at important moments, such as in last week’s 1-0 win over Sochaux.
The Ivorian winger has many admirers across Europe, with Manchester City thought to be interested in his services, likewise Liverpool. Lille will do well to keep this talented squad together, but like their German counterparts Borussia Dortmund, who won the Bundesliga with a near identical tale of youth, creativity, flair and a solid defence, it would be a mini travesty were this team not to go into next season’s Champions League together to show the whole of Europe what they are capable of.
And for a start they will be without Adil Rami, their star defender who was loaned to them for the second half of the season after signing for Valencia in January. Alongside Aurélien Chedjou, the pair formed a solid defence, with Rio Mavuba the crucial midfield enforcer any attacking side needs to allow their creative talents to roam free and wreck havoc.
Garcia’s biggest challenge lies ahead, and with rivals Lyon set to fire former Lille coach Claude Puel in the coming weeks, it would not surprise any if Les Gones came calling for the Spanish manager. But Lille, moving into a new stadium in the coming years and with a bright future ahead of them, have an opportunity to turn themselves into one of the real powerhouses of French football alongside Lyon and Marseille. It would be hard to see them doing it without Garcia.
