Lille on target for remarkable double
( 2001-03-21 16:38 ) (7 )

Lille on target for remarkable double

Coach Vahid Halilhodzic has led his Lille team to the brink of the French first division title and is doing his best to keep the pressure off his surprise championship challengers.

Lille, last season's second division champions, began the season with modest ambitions but, with five rounds remaining, they are joint leaders with Nantes.

Lille and Nantes both have 53 points from 29 games, with the northern club holding the edge on goal difference. The pair's closest pursuers, Olympique Lyon and Girondins Bordeaux, are four points off the pace.

The last time the division two champions went straight on to win the top flight was in 1978 when Monaco achieved the feat.

Halilhodzic, 48, brushes aside talk of his team as potential first division champions for the first time since 1954 and only the third time in their history.

"With five rounds remaining it would be far too greedy for us to talk about being champions," Halilhodzic said in his column in the Voix du Nord newspaper this week. "That said, I do think we have taken a big step towards a place in Europe."

Lille maintained a six-match unbeaten run with a 2-0 win away to Toulouse at the weekend which was achieved with the team's customary defensive efficiency.

A Lille defence marshalled by Pascal Cygan has conceded only 19 goals in 29 league matches this season -- by far the best record in the French league -- and the team have won five and drawn one of their last six matches.

Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux all won at the weekend, however, ensuring a tense final five rounds when the league resumes on April 6 after a break for national team matches and French Cup games.

NO BIG NAMES

Lille are out of both Cup competitions and Halilhodzic has scheduled a training camp in Morocco this week to keep his players focused.

The team's success has been achieved without any big-name players or transfer plunges and, recently, in the absence of skipper Djezon Boutoille, who is ruled out for the rest of the season by an ankle injury which was operated on last Friday.

Goalkeeper Gregory Wimbee, who began the season as second choice, has conceded only two goals in the last six games.

Defender Christophe Pignol, a member of the Monaco team that won last season's title, compares Wimbee with his former team mate Fabien Barthez, the French national team goalkeeper.

"Gregory has been phenomenal," Pignol said. "And the teams that win things have great goalkeepers."

But Lille's success is very much a collective effort -- as is evidenced by the fact that Dagui Bakari is the team's leading scorer with just five league goals.

"There are no stars here," said Halilhodzic. "The squad is the star."

"I believe we can achieve something great here, even though we have a tough run-in."

Bosnian-born Halilhodizic, who won a French league title with Nantes and was twice leading scorer in the first division, is immensely protective of his team of no-names.

"Am I proud?" he asked. "More than you can imagine."

HARD WORK

The former Velez Mostar, Beauvais and Raja Casablanca coach has paid his dues and is regarded as a workaholic by those around him. His attention to detail has paid dividends this season.

"It is amazing," he said after the Toulouse match. "This team is growing every day, becoming more and more aware of its capabilities."

Midfielder Bruno Cheyrou says the team's self-confidence has proved a key factor.

"Against Toulouse we felt that they could play for two days and they wouldn't be able to score," Cheyrou said. "This is a squad that thrives on hard work and challenges."

Wimbee says consistency and maintaining the same work ethic have been the key to Lille's success so far.

"We haven't changed the way we do anything -- and that is one of the reasons for our strength," he said.

With three of Lille's last five matches away from the club's cosy Stade Grimonprez-Jooris -- where they have lost only once in the league all season -- their home match against title rivals Bordeaux on April 6 looms as a pivotal one.

"It is no fluke that Lille are on top with five rounds left," said Bordeaux defender Francois Grenet. "They are well organised and hard to beat. We will go there knowing that we have to win."

(Agencies)