Lille fan

well..... too disgusted by the outcome to say anything more ! football can be so cruel... good luck with the end of the season in C4 and especially in premier league and hopefull we'll meet again in Champions league next year !

not sure if the game is broadcasted in the UK but if any of you is looking for a good legal high-quality streaming for tonight , the game is broadcasted for free on Lille's local TV : https://www.bfmtv.com/grand-lille/en-direct/ i suspect you might need a VPN set on "france" though (not quite sure) very excited for tonight !

nice one

good news for you , our main winger Zhegrova is injured

i've watched your game against Arsenal - great performance ! things have got scarier ! if we don't score the first goal we're dead ...

well my english friends , interesting game though i feel neither teams played at their best level disappointed by the outcome of the game , i feel we had a better result in our hands , but glad to be still alive , after Mc Guinn 's beautiful goal i thought we would drown absolutely disgusted by the goal cancelled by VAR with our played being basically on the same line , this technology is the cancer of football (and i say the same thing when we benefit from it) i'll be fair-play and conceide you could have had (maybe) a penalty , subtle fault but fault nonetheless...overall didn't like the referee too bad for us Zhegrova and David were catastrophic tonight , hopefully better next week i believe who ever scores the first goal next thursday will qualify... i maintain my 60/40 odd in favor of Villains also , i don't know if leaving the stadium before the end of the game is common practice in VP but it's not a pretty sight Cheers !!

please feel free to whack them yourself i'd be more than happy to see those morons bite the dust...

agreed the more i read this forum , the more i find similarities between the two teams. i woke up pessimistic though. Not only because Aston Villa has better players and performs so well in PL ... just the ancestral mediocrity of french clubs in final european rounds (only 2 trophies won in 80 years , altogether) small good news for us , Angel Gomes is no longer injured back on the bench ... he , more than anyone else , will be super-motivated to show his english fellows he could play in PL. A bit disappointed if Digne doesn't play , he's a local boy and has always been appreciated a lot over here( we had to let him go to psg way too early for financial reasons)... the consensus amongst this forum seems to be that Moreno is even better , which is quite frightening

The Stadium is not in Lille but in Villeneuve d'Ascq , it's a 10-15 minutes subway ride away from the city center People in Lille are generally friendly and welcoming (way more than in Paris or South of France) , but we of course have our dickheads like anybody else. Inside Stadium is safe and good for visitors , stay vigilant for ultras dressed in black nearby the stadium though , a small minority of them like to fight episodically... just something you might want to know City center is safe , old city center (vieux-lille) even safer . i would recommend sticking to theses parts of the city before and after the game...

for those interested here's my analysis of what Villa is gonna face next thursday i've seen every game this season so you can trust me Lille is 99% certainly going to play like this --------------Chevalier------------------ Santos- Yoro-Alexsandro - Ismaily -----André------Bentaleb----------- Zhegrova----Haraldsson----Gudmunsson --------------David------------------------------ CHEVALIER is france's 2nd best goalkeeper (behind Maignan), period. ISMAILY is an experimented brasilian left back, smart and good technically but old and slow , can definitely be a weakness versus a fast-faced player (Bailey?) ALEXSANDRO is a crazy strong physical defenser (think Jaap Stam) but not reliable at all with the ball , ligue 1 teams usually target him to press against.. YORO is our young (18) jewel , Real Madrid wants him for next season , smart , very clean , impressively calm... he reminds a lot of people of a young Varane SANTOS is a young , powerful and technical , extremely offensive right back . he's equally a serious threat to the opponent and an opportunity , as he's nowhere as good defensively than he is offensively. ANDRé : Captain , Great Fighter , he's awesome ! It's beyond me than Premier League clubs never drafted him (he's 35 now so too late)... Him and David are the 2 remaining players from the 2021 ligue 1 title. BENTALEB : He's better now than when he was in Tottenham... very complete player , technical and powerful with a strong emphasis on passing (short or long) ZHEGROVA : Spectacular but flawed... He can score insane Robben-like goals all by himself but he's also a bit of a one trick pony , using only his left foot and he's too much of a solo-ist for my taste. Easily the best player of our team on dribbling and 1 to 1. Bad defensively. HARALDSSON : Our sole "big" investment this season (14M euros) is a thin young icelandish , he only started playing good games last month . very generous and gifted with the ball but if you leave him no space he'll drown... (same for your english fellow ANGEL GOMES at the same position , who's injured at the moment) GUDMUNSSON : he runs a lot and defends well , weak technically , shouldn't be a danger for you except on counter attacks DAVID : Great versatile player. He scores quite a lot this season but he's not a scoring-machine like Watkins.... not quite your typical center striker... he's more like a "false 9 " , lots of work for the team , defense , building... extremely good at pressing and create mistakes from the opponent. On the Bench : CABELLA (good creative player but old) , OUNAS (insanely technical but fat and lazy) , CAVALEIRO (mediocre) , ANGEL GOMES ( you might know him but probably still injured) , DIAKITE (all rounder defender , less impressive but more secure than Alexsandro or Santos) As you can see Lille is asymetrical with a very offensive right side (Zhegrova-Santos) and a defensive left side (Ismaily-Gudmunsson) . How Aston Villa deals with that will be the key of the game , along with neutralizing Haraaldsson in between the lines , and leave Bentaleb no time to use his long play Lille very often struggles with first 15-20 minutes , a great match start from you might hurt us a lot. Also , our young team lacks maturity and have a hard time finishing games especially when leading. The André-Bentaleb aggressive midfield combo might be the best in ligue 1 (psg excepted) so Mc Guinn and Luiz should be warned. Ligue 1 is far less intense than Premier League so i think Aston Villa should use that to his avantage (as Newcastle-PSG and Arsenal-Lens this season) and not play too secure. As i've said before , Lille is statistically MUCH better at home . If you don't crush us in VP anything's possible.. Very excited for Thursday !

Fonseca and Emery are about the same age . You're right to compare them though , they share a lot of similarities (they're both guardiola fanboys after all) . Fonseca is undoubtly the star of our club and is regarded as one of the best coach in french league , if not the best. He probably deserves a much better/richer team than Lille , although his bad run with AS roma hurt his career... what he tries to get from his team : as much ball possession as possible , always building from the back with short passes (bit too risky sometimes) , and quick passes sequences in the middle to defeat opponent's pressing. i don't think you should expect a low passive block with rare counterattacks.... more like a medium block and a big fight between midfielders with some tactical ideas to try to neutralize Aston Villa's individual superiority. I wouldn't be surprised if ball possession is pretty much equal.

Hello Villa Fans ! Good games coming ! Here Aston Villa is perceived as the clear favourite to lift the trophy and the draw was pretty worrying ! However the last 2 weeks we regained some hope as Lille played two great games (beating Lens and Marseille with style) while we've seen Aston Villa conceiding a lot of goals. to me it went from 75/25 to 60/40 odds. We obviously fear Unai Emery , Watkins and Martinez (WC trauma.. most hated GK in this country) and know Tielemans , Digne , Diaby quite well . I understand Luiz , Mc Guinn and Bailey (and others) are key players to watch for... Lille is much stronger in our stadium (best home team in ligue 1 ahead of PSG ... 3 losses in last 40 games) than away.... most of us would be fine with losing in Villa Park by a one goal margin.... 2nd game will be for sure in our full 50.000 stadium with a great atmosphere.. also we have no championship game in between 2 rounds (while you play Arsenal) so expect a fresh opponent both times. We secretly hope Aston Villa somewhat prioritize Premier League battle to get a C1 ticket... You should expect to face a surprisingly technical team ( on a "farmer league" scale) with quite a lot of activity and fighting spirit... some weaknesses here and there due mostly to some players being a little too young and some others being a little too old.. i might post a deeper review of our team later. Fonseca is a very tactical coach , making up specific plans for each opponent. sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't . Last year he tried a full-on offensive approach who was interesting but he realized the players weren't strong enough to play like that (lots of goals conceded in lost balls) so now we're more balanced and more impredictable... i expect this game to be a chess game between Fonseca and Emery , although Emery play with more expensive pieces... . cheers !

Hey everybody ! Losc fan here , I'd be interested in discussing the round vs Villa on this forum these 2 coming weeks ! no trashtalk or insult from me , that goes without saying , only here for the pleasure of talking football !