Lille have maintained their European ambitions with a 2-1 victory over 10-man Valenciennes at home in Ligue 1.
The former French champions started the game the brighter of the two teams, Salomon Kalou's shot from a Dimitri Payet cross drawing out a good save from Nicolas Penneteau in the very first minute.
Moments later Gaetan Bong put the ball into his own net to hand the lead to Lille.
Payet and Kalou's long-range attempts on the Valenciennes goal went off target, before Anthony Le Tallec forced Mickael Landreau into making a good save between the Lille posts.
However, things went from bad to worse for the visitors when they were reduced to 10 men in the 29th minute, as Carlos Sanchez was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Florent Balmont and David Rozehnal almost took advantage of Lille's numerical superiority in the following few minutes, and Payet eventually did on 41 minutes.
Kalou sent him through on goal and Payet shot home from the left side of the penalty box.
Gael Danic could have halved the deficit on the stroke of half-time, and he had another chance three minutes into the second half.
Payet, Marvin Martin, Balmont and Kalou all tested Valenciennes goalkeeper Penneteau before the hour mark.
The visitors pulled one back with 20 minutes left on the clock through Le Tallec, but failed to capitalise on that and ended up losing the game 2-1.
Subhankar Mondal
