Having opened the deadlock inside the first 15 minutes in both their away league victories this term, another early strike suggested a rather favourable evening for Brest.
An inswinging corner delivery left the Lille defence scrambling, leading to the ball deflecting off Achraf Dari and unfortunately onto Tiago Djalo, who was ultimately credited with an own goal.
Perhaps still reeling from Lionel Messi’s brilliance last weekend, Les Dogues were left shocked, but didn’t let the goal affect them.
Led by Jonathan David and Edon Zhegrova, the hosts turned the heat on the visitors with incessant attacks and came agonisingly close to equalising via the former’s curling effort from the edge of the box that rattled the crossbar.
On the losing end in all six away league games in which they conceded first, Eric Roy’s men found themselves in a comfortably unfamiliar position heading into the break.
Lille continued to mount pressure, with their perseverance eventually paying dividends on the hour mark, after Bafode Diakite guided home the leveller with a fantastic pinpoint header from inside the six-yard box.
Brest had keeper Marco Bizot to thank for not trailing shortly after, as the Dutch shot-stopper pulled a fantastic leaping save to deny Remy Cabella’s thunderous free-kick directed towards the right corner.
With just 10 minutes to go, Lille clinched the lead out of the blue, with yet another headed goal from a set-piece doing the job.
It was Alexsandro this time around, who leaped like a salmon to plant a powerful header in the back of the net to make it 2-1 and put the foul-mouthed encounter to bed.
Despite seeing a red card, coach Paulo Fonseca leads his side to a 10th straight undefeated top-flight home game, matching the club’s all-time record from the 2019/2020 season.
Meanwhile, the loss leaves Brest hanging just one point above the drop zone despite having played an extra game.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Alexsandro (Lille)
