Olivier Giroud Strikes Late To Lift Lille Past Monaco

Last Updated:August 25, 2025, 09:22 IST

Olivier Giroud, nearing 39, scored a late winner for Lille against Monaco, vowing this is only the beginning. Rennes suffered a 4-0 loss at Lorient after two early red cards.

Olivier Giroud celebrates after netting against Monaco [AFP Photo]

Even though Olivier Giroud is about to turn 39, he vowed “this is only the beginning" after scoring in added time on Sunday to secure a 1-0 Ligue 1 win for Lille against Monaco. Giroud, the French national team’s all-time leading scorer, was brought in by Lille partly to replace Jonathan David, who made a scoring Serie A debut for Juventus on Sunday night.

“It was a challenge I thought I could take on," Giroud explained. “I’m a man who likes a challenge. I’m enjoying myself, even if it’s a little harder to recover with age."

Giroud had scored 11 minutes into his first game for Lille in a 3-3 draw at Brest in the first round. Sunday’s match was much more cautious until Giroud broke the deadlock in the 91st minute.

Receiving the ball with his back to the goal, Giroud spun, glanced towards the far post and, with goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky moving the wrong way, fired a shot into the middle of the net.

“This is only the beginning," Giroud reiterated. “There will also be moments that are a little less cool, but we’ll deal with those too."

With Monaco pressing, Lille won a penalty on the counter-attack but Giroud missed the spot-kick, sending it over the bar. He called it a “slight blemish".

“We needed this victory to get our season off to a flying start," Giroud said. “I’m going to continue… in this big brother role, which I quite enjoy. We have young players pushing behind us, and at some point, they will also be able to contribute."

Coach Bruno Genesio praised Giroud’s “technical mastery at the end of the match, despite his fatigue", adding that “we played a real team game and he contributed a lot by keeping possession".

Earlier, Rennes had two players sent off within the first 10 minutes and four seconds at Lorient, leading to a 4-0 defeat. The week before, Rennes had played an hour a man short but still beat Marseille 1-0.

“We need aggression," said Rennes coach Habib Beye. “Last year we didn’t have enough, now we have too much."

For Rennes, trouble began before kick-off. Last week, central defender Mikayil Faye overslept and missed the season-opening win over Marseille, during which another defender, Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal, was sent off and suspended for Sunday’s game.

With right-back Przemyslaw Frankowski injured, Mousa Al-Tamari was set to take over at wing-back. However, the Jordanian arrived late for a pre-match meeting and was dropped by Beye.

Mahdi Camara, a summer arrival from Saint-Etienne, made his Rennes debut but it lasted only four minutes as he caught Lorient’s Dermane Karim in the head with a boot and was sent off.

In the 10th minute, Christopher Wooh brought down Aiyegun Tosin, who was running at goal, and was also sent off.

“Unfortunately, both red cards were deserved," Beye admitted.

Statistical service Opta, which has Ligue 1 records dating back to 1992, found no previous instance of two players from the same team being sent off so soon after the opening whistle.

Despite an hour’s practice playing short-handed last week, the nine men held out until the fourth minute of first-half added time when Sambou Soumano gave the hosts the lead.

The visitors then fell apart, with Tosin adding a second two minutes into the second half, Pablo Pagis striking in the 65th minute and Theo Le Bris scoring four minutes later.

“Once we were down to nine men, it was a match we could no longer control, a match where we unfortunately had to shut up shop," said Beye.

(With AFP Inputs)

Aakash Biswas

A cricket enthusiast whose dreams of playing for India paved the way for a compelling journey in journalism. With a comprehensive coverage spanning international and domestic cricket across formats, I have had ...Read More

A cricket enthusiast whose dreams of playing for India paved the way for a compelling journey in journalism. With a comprehensive coverage spanning international and domestic cricket across formats, I have had ...

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First Published:

August 25, 2025, 09:22 IST

News sports Olivier Giroud Strikes Late To Lift Lille Past Monaco

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