It was a rough weekend for Tim Weah and reigning Ligue 1 champions Lille as they proved to be no match for Nice.
Lille 0 – 4 Nice
After last week’s season opener where Lille played Metz to a 3-3 draw on the road and Tim Weah came off the bench for Jonathan David, the American was given the nod to start at home against Nice. Things didn’t go so well for the defending champions as they failed to secure any points in their 4-0 defeat.
The visitors came all the way to the north of France from their sunny Mediterranean home with one thing on their minds – score goals. And a minute into the game they did just that when Kasper Dolberg found himself in the right place at the right time to score his first goal of the season.
Things only got worse a few minutes later when Hichem Boudaoui doubled the score for the Eaglets. Lille did give the sense of getting back into the game, winning a couple free kicks and a trio of corner kicks in the next 15 minutes but all of them came to nothing. The hosts did seem the more likely to score and Weah had a good chance off a corner a half-hour into the game but his header was blocked by a defender.
With two minutes of extra time added, Nice found themselves placing the ball on the penalty spot; well it was Amine Gouiri who placed it on the spot and proceeded to ripple the back of the net before the referee finally blew the whistle to end the half and give the hosts a chance to lick their wounds and come up with a new game plan.
Jonathan David, Lille’s talisman who didn’t start, came on for the second half but in the end, made no difference. Weah was substituted 20 minutes later and before it was all over Dolberg hit the back of the net again, this time in the 64th minute. Try as they may, Lille just could not breach Nice’s defense and ended the day with what can be considered a humiliating defeat for the defending French champions.
The best thing about football is that there is always next week, and the Dogues will travel to St Etienne for a Saturday night kickoff in hopes of winning their first game of the season.
Notes
Konrad de la Fuente got the nod and played 90 minutes for Marseille as they surrendered two second-half goals to end up sharing the points with Bordeaux in a 2-2 draw.
Nicholas Gioacchini and SM Caen’s trip to Corsica to take on Ajaccio was postponed until a later date. The Normandy team currently sits in fifth place in Ligue 2.
