Lille possessed a terrific home record in Ligue 1 last season and they can get the better of Sporting Lisbon on Thursday.
The title was up for grabs in France right until the dying weeks of the season last Spring but Lille could ultimately only finish fourth behind eventual Champions Marseille and in the end had to settle for a Europa League place. It was decent effort however, they also enjoyed a terrific run to the last 16 of this competition, before succumbing to Liverpool, and should be too strong for their Portuguese opponents in Europe’s second-tier competition.
Lille tasted defeat just twice on home soil domestically last season and boast a fabulous overall recent record at Stadium Lille-Metropole. Valencia left with a hard-earned point 12 months ago before Lille progressed to the knockout stages with impressive wins over Slavia Prague and Genoa and they continued their terrific form before defeat at Anfield saw them exit.
Both Fenerbahce and Liverpool were beaten when Lille were hosts in two-legged ties and it’s now seven wins and a draw and from their previous eight Europa League matches on home including their comfortable 2-0 triumph over Romanian side Vaslui in the play-offs this time around.
Lille don’t possess many individual stars but manager Rudi Garcia has made them very difficult to beat and there are worse outsiders for overall glory in 2011.
They will once again rely on Pierre-Alan Frau and Ivory Coast international Gervinho for goals and the whole side will have taken a tremendous amount of confidence from a 4-1 weekend win at Lens when both of the aforementioned strikers were on target twice.
Lille face a Sporting team that should really be achieving plenty more under coach Costinha and fourth place in the top flight last season was once again a disappointment. In fact, they haven’t been champions in Portugal for eight seasons now and won just 13 of 30 matches during the last campaign.
Having lost both Joao Moutinho and Miguel Veloso in the summer, it looks set to be another tough season for the side from the capital and Sporting were held at home to a goalless draw to Olhanense on the weekend.
Sporting did overcome a 2-0 first leg deficit to advance at the expense of Brondby in the play-off stage this time last month but their overall form away from home is inconsistent, winning just five of their previous 15 matches in all competitions, and the 1.91 about the home side will do very nicely indeed. It is shorter on the exchanges.
3pts Back Lille (vs. Sporting Lisbon) @ 1.91 (Paddy Power)