Ligue 1 in Europe: Matchday 4 (Europa League)

By: Sarah | November 4th, 2009

While Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille have already been grabbing the headline this week with their performances in the Champion’s League, the attention now turns to Lille and Toulouse for their games in the Europa League. I’ll be honest, given the Ligue 1 performances earlier this week, expectations are rising– will they be able to live up to them?

Genoa vs. Lille

Lille sits in the top spot in Group B thanks to their 3-0 win in France two weeks ago against Genoa. Genoa will hope they can avenge their biggest defeat in European competition when Lille visit them at home on Thursday. While Genoa may have some extra motivation, Lille can travel to Italy with confidence having won all three of their previous matches in Italy…without even conceding a goal. Despite their domestic blunders, Lille have been on fire in Europe this season, having won all six of their seven games thus far, winning six of their last seven away matches (the only loss was to MU in the first Champions League knock out stage in the 06/07 season), accumulating more than an average of two goals per game and maintaining a less than one goal conceded per game average. This is not to say that Genoa is not stiff competition– with the exception of their away game against Lille, they have been tough opposition. This is especially true when they have played at home, having won six of their last seven European home games (the loss was to Ajax in the UEFA Cup semi-final match in the 91/92 season). Both teams need a win here to have a chance of getting out of the group– especially with their games against Valencia looming in the future.

Toulouse vs. Shakhtar Donetsk

Toulouse, who were humiliated two weeks ago by Shakhtar in a 4-0 defeat in Ukraine, will be hoping to register a win to keep their European chances alive. This will be tough. Shakhtar, the current title holders (at least UEFA Cup title holders), have the extra motivation of knowing that if they win this game they will have secured their passage to the knock out stages. Shakhtar have demonstrated their ability to come to France and win– they have won three of their five games in France. On top of that, Shakhtar have established an impressive shooting average this season, having scored at least 4 goals in each of their group games thus far and their only loss in Europe this season is the 1-0 loss they suffered against Barcelona in the Super Cup. But, don’t count Toulouse out just yet. They have been building momentum in their domestic games, and Moussa Sissoko has the ability to turn a game around in Toulouse’s favor.