1 March 2008 - At Least Lille Got To Share In The Record

On 1 March 2008, a record crowd turned out to watch Lyon continue the march to their seventh straight Ligue 1 title with a 1-0 victory over Lille.

The result was easy to predict, as Lyon had been at the top of the table since the end of September, while Lille were twenty points back in fourteenth place despite having just completed eight straight matches unbeaten. But in order to celebrate the tenth anniversary of France's victory in the 1998 World Cup final, the match was moved from Lyon's Stade Gerland (with a capacity of 40,500) to the stadium where Les Bleus lifted the trophy, the Stade de France. The move allowed an all-time league record crowd of 77,840 to attend, dwarfing the previous league record of 57,609 set at Marseille's Stade Velodrome in 2005.

To their credit, Lille--who had held Lyon to a 1-1 draw earlier in the season--put up a fight, but eventually conceded a goal in the 32nd minute when Lyon's Brazilian striker Fred (pictured) connected with a cross and drove the ball into the back of the net. It turned out to be the only goal of the day, though Lille came close to an equalizer in the 60th minute when Pierre-Alain Frau hit the bar.

Lyon remained at the top to take their seventh straight Ligue 1 title, while Lille lost only once more to climb to seventh in the final table.

7 January 1991 - The Entrance of Eden

On 7 January 1991, Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard was born in La Louvière, Belgium. 

The son of two footballing parents, Hazard joined Lille in 2005 as a 14-year old youth player, then signed a professional contract with them in 2007. He made his first appearance for the first team that November in a friendly.

An attacking midfielder/winger, he secured a spot in the senior team for the 2008-09 season and became the youngest goalscorer in club history when he netted the equalizer in Lille's 3-2 league win over Auxerre on 20 September. He went on to contribute six goals and three assists in 35 appearances that season, a performance that won him the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award. He won the award for a second time after the 2009-10 season with 10 goals and nine assists in 52 appearances.

Hazard continued to improve in 2010-11, scoring 12 goals and providing 10 assists as Lille won their first league title in over 50 years. And they won it comfortably, eight points clear of second-place finishers Marseille. It was part of a double, as Lille also won the Coupe de France that year. For his role, Hazard was named the Ligue 1 Player of the Year and was included in the league's Team of the Year. He repeated as Player of the Year in 2012.

In 2012, he moved to Chelsea for a transfer fee of £32 million. There, he continued his impressive run of form, culminating in the 2014-15 season where he scored 19 goals across all competitions and led the club to the league title. He accumulated several individual accolades, including Premier League Player of the Season and the FWA Footballer of the Year.

Aftter a slump in 2015-16, he is back on form as Chelsea currently top the table.

12 February 2012 - He Had A Couple Of Points To Prove, Apparently

On 12 February 2012, defending Ligue 1 champions Lille battled back from a 1-4 deficit against Bordeaux only to lose 4-5 to a stoppage-time goal from a former player.

At the time, Lille were chasing the top spot, sitting in third, ten points behind co-leaders Montpellier and Paris Saint-Germain (though the former had played two games more than Lille and the latter had played one more). Bordeaux, meanwhile, were back in ninth when they visited the Stadium Lille Métropole, but had drawn 1-1 with Lille at home in September.

It took just under two minutes for Bordeaux to take the lead with a goal from midfielder Nicolas Maurice-Belay, but Lille defender David Rozehnal equalized in the eighth minute. Nine minutes later, Bordeaux pulled back ahead with a goal from Ludovic Obraniak, who had joined them from Lille just one month earlier. By the hour mark, they had extended their lead to 1-4 with goals from Maurice-Belay (50') and Yoan Gouffran (60').

Lille stormed back in the final thirty minutes with strikes from Eden Hazard (65'), Mathieu Debuchy (75'), and Nolan Roux (90') to claim what looked to be a near-certain point. But Obraniak scored again in the third minute of stoppage time to steal the victory for his new team.

Bordeaux went on to finish the season in fifth place, while Lille remained third in the final table.


Lille-Bordeaux 4-5, tous les buts by ChezLesGirondins

1 March 2008 - At Least Lille Got To Share In The Record

On 1 March 2008, a record crowd turned out to watch Lyon continue the march to their seventh straight Ligue 1 title with a 1-0 victory over Lille.

The result was easy to predict, as Lyon had been at the top of the table since the end of September, while Lille were twenty points back in fourteenth place despite having just completed eight straight matches unbeaten. But in order to celebrate the tenth anniversary of France's victory in the 1998 World Cup final, the match was moved from Lyon's Stade Gerland (with a capacity of 40,500) to the stadium where Les Bleus lifted the trophy, the Stade de France. The move allowed an all-time league record crowd of 77,840 to attend, dwarfing the previous league record of 57,609 set at Marseille's Stade Velodrome in 2005.

To their credit, Lille--who had held Lyon to a 1-1 draw earlier in the season--put up a fight, but eventually conceded a goal in the 32nd minute when Lyon's Brazilian striker Fred (pictured) connected with a cross and drove the ball into the back of the net. It turned out to be the only goal of the day, though Lille came close to an equalizer in the 60th minute when Pierre-Alain Frau hit the bar.

Lyon remained at the top to take their seventh straight Ligue 1 title, while Lille lost only once more to climb to seventh in the final table.

7 January 1991 - The Entrance Of Eden

On 7 January 1991, midfielder Eden Hazard was born in La Louvière, Belgium. He has since become one of the world's most exciting young players and is the reigning Ligue 1 Player of the Year.

Both of Hazard's parents played football, then both went into academics after their playing careers ended. In 2005, the then-14-year old Hazard joined Lille as a youth player, then signed a professional contract with them in 2007 and made his first appearance for the first team that November in a friendly.

An attacking midfielder/winger, he secured a spot in the senior team for the 2008-09 season and became the youngest goalscorer in club history when he netted the equalizer in Lille's 3-2 league win over Auxerre on 20 September. He went on to contribute six goals and three assists in 35 appearances that season, a performance that won him the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award. He won the award for a second time after the 2009-10 season with 10 goals and nine assists in 52 appearances.

Hazard continued to improve in 2010-11, scoring 12 goals and providing 10 assists as Lille won their first league title in over 50 years. And they won it comfortably, eight points clear of second-place finishers Marseille. It was part of a double, as Lille also won the Coupe de France that year. For his role, Hazard was named the Ligue 1 Player of the Year and was included in the league's Team of the Year.

Midway through the 2011-12 season, he continues to improve, having provided a total of eight goals and six assists so far.