Lille won without worry against Nice – AFP
- Winner Saturday of Nice (2-0), Losc is three games from an incredible title of champion of France.
- The biggest challenge is announced on Friday at the neighboring Lensois in a very important derby for both teams.
This is a scenario that supporters of both clubs have been dreaming of secretly for several weeks. A derby two days from the end where Losc would play for the title and RC Lens a place in the European Cup. The dream has now become a reality. Next Friday in Bollaert (9 p.m.), the leader of Ligue 1, winner of Nice on Saturday (2-0), knows that he will play much more than a derby against his eternal regional rival.
In the three games he still has to win to become French champion for sure, the trip to Lens really seems the most complicated. When Saint-Etienne and Angers that Lille will face during the two days will not play anything, this is not the case of a Racing in the fight for a qualification in the Europa League.
Without an audience, can we still talk about derby?
“We will be on two teams which are having a magnificent season. Lens is having an exceptional season for a promoted. We are doing a very good course. There is something at stake. For us, it is to stay first. For Lens, it is to seek a European place, ”explains Christophe Galtier, a Lille coach who has difficulty talking about derby.
As on the go, this 112th confrontation in history will be played behind closed doors. And without an audience, that changes everything. “Will we be in a notion of derby?” I do not believe. The derby is often the match of the supporters who make the teams transcend themselves and that a lot of things happen. There, it will be in an empty stadium but with very high stakes for the two teams ”, continues the coach of Losc.
Popular support that is increasingly asserting itself
However, chambering will be required this week on social networks between supporters of the two camps. And popular support will no doubt be expressed around the training centers and around the Bollaert stadium. On Saturday, before the match against Nice, 500 Losc supporters crowded around the Pierre Mauroy stadium. And the city of Lille now lights up at night in the colors of the club as a sign of support in this quest for the title.
“We know that we are supported by our supporters because we see it every day at our training center in Luchin. There are more and more banners, signs. It touches us, it’s encouraging and it makes us feel good. The fact that there are people on Saturday to make the short trip between our hotel and the stadium with a lot of chanting and smoke, it also shows the players that even if we cannot share these great moments of joy, our supporters are proud of the team and what they do. I also saw the city in the colors of Losc. There is a whole city that believes in us. Are we going to get there? I do not know. But we put all our energy into it to get there. And the support from Lille warms our hearts, ”concludes Galtier.