Oct 2 (Reuters) – Lille coach Bruno Genesio hailed a perfect night for his side as they beat visitors Real Madrid 1-0 in the Champions League to extend the 15-time European Cup winners’ unbeaten run to 14 games.
Lille played fearlessly and pressed relentlessly and scored courtesy of a Jonathan David penalty in first-half stoppage time to give Carlo Ancelotti’s side a memorable win in all competitions since January.
“It’s unbelievable what this team did. We’re trying to put things together, but the players have to trust the plan to pull off an upset like this,” Genesio said.
“You have to do everything right, you need a keeper who makes decisive saves, a striker who scores and a bit of luck.”
Keeper Lucas Chevalier certainly did his job, making a few brilliant saves as Real finally applied some proper pressure.
Lille managed to hold it together after an excellent first half, during which they had the upper hand against a fearsome Real side.
“We played a great first half, we played together and it was a great night for everyone,” added Genesio, explaining that he and his staff had studied Real’s 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid in LaLiga last weekend.
“We used this game to prepare. We saw that Real wanted to cut inside, so we showed intensity in that area even if we had to give up possession at times,” he said.
“Then it was about pressing when it mattered, everything worked perfectly, it was a great display even though we struggled a lot in the last 25-30 minutes, but Lucas made the saves we needed.”
His arch-rival Carlo Ancelotti hoped the team, who had gone 36 games unbeaten in all competitions, would learn from the defeat.
“It seemed like we were making progress and today we took a step back,” the Italian said.
“The defeat against Atletico in January helped us change. I hope that will happen now.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davies)
