Lille OSC 1 - 4 Monaco: Monaco send warning to title rivals with thumping win at Lille

Posted Sunday, September 11, 2016 by PA

Monaco returned to the top of the Ligue 1 table thanks to a thumping 4-1 win in Lille.

Goals from Djibril Sidibe, Adama Traore, Fabinho and Kamil Glik ensured a comfortable evening in Lille for Leonardo Jardim's men, who underlined their title ambitions with a 3-1 victory over Paris St Germain before the international break.

Defeat for Lille means they have still only won once in the league this season, a slender 1-0 triumph against Dijon.

The visitors made a thrilling start when Sidibe, against his former employers, sent a superb free-kick beyond a static Vincent Enyeama after two minutes.

And another former Lille employee, Adama Traore, made it 2-0 on 17 minutes after tapping in Nabil Dirar's deflected delivery.

Lille tried to offer a response and Younousse Sankhare almost reduced the deficit after capitalising on some poor defending, but his volley crashed against Morgan De Sanctis' crossbar.

That proved to be a false dawn, though, as Monaco added a third shortly after the restart.

It came in some style when Valere Germain nodded Dirar's cross down for Fabinho and the Brazilian rifled a shot beyond Enyeama to prompt a furious reaction from the hosts' fans.

And the scoring did not finish there as the visitors added a fourth on 71 minutes when Glik grabbed his first Monaco goal, heading Joao Moutinho's delivery beyond Lille's Nigerian goalkeeper.

Julien Palmieri added a late consolation for Lille, hammering a lovely volley beyond De Sanctis from the edge of the area, but it did nothing to quell a disappointing night all round for the hosts.