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Lille forced to reassess

13 February 2012 15:32

Lille boss Rudi Garcia has set his sights on a third-place finish in Ligue 1 after the reigning champions fell 11 points behind leaders PSG.

Lille boss Rudi Garcia has set his sights on a third-place finish in Ligue 1 after the reigning champions fell 11 points behind leaders PSG.

Garcia blamed poor defending for the side's dramatic 5-4 injury-time loss at home to Bordeaux on Sunday and vowed to see his side to a top-three finish.

Lille head a group of six teams that are separated by three points or less in the top part of the table and face a trip to mid-table Lorient on Saturday.

"We must set our targets for this season accordingly to our means. We are not dreaming. We want to be in the top three," Garcia said.

"We are still third in the league, even if Marseille didn't play."

"That's why we must focus on our next games if we want to win matches, or at least the next one, and try to start a new run of victories."

Marseille are a point adrift of Garde's side in sixth after playing the same amount of games while Lyon (fourth) and Stade Rennes (fifth) are level on points having played an extra game.

On Sunday's loss, Garcia was less than complimentary about some of the defending that saw his side staring down a 4-1 deficit, but praised their second-half fightback.

"When your defence hands your opponents so many gifts like that, you wonder how many goals we would have needed to score just to take a point?" he said.

"I liked many things in the match. There were some positive elements. To be 4-1 down and to come back is still an achievement and our young substitutes did bring a lot of enthusiasm to the team."

"In that game we scored, but we were really awful defensively. We must quickly rediscover some balance if we want to win our next match."

Garcia's Bordeaux counterpart Francis Gillot said his players will need time to absorb the thrilling victory.

"We weren't euphoric as we had been hammered when they scored three more and equalised. I didn't feel any euphoria from my players," Gillot said.

"They will only realise what they have done tomorrow. They were more amazed by the fact that we conceded three rather than the fact we scored the fifth goal. I don't even know if all of them saw the last goal go in."

"But, no, it is true. They were quite calm and relieved. And, of course, had a sense of having done their duty."

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Friday 25 May

Thursday 24 May

23:58
23:47
23:38
23:18
23:00
22:49
19:29
19:20
18:04
17:33
16:32
16:25
15:59
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Wednesday 23 May

22:55
22:26
21:57
20:28
19:45
19:39
19:08
18:56
17:54
17:32
17:31
17:29
16:36
15:54
15:46
15:29
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14:55
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13:55
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10:59
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09:47
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Ligue 1 table

# Team MP D P
1 38 +34 82
2 38 +34 79
3 38 +33 74
4 38 +13 64
5 38 +12 61
6 38 +9 60
7 38 +4 57
8 38 +3 56
9 38 -1 50
10 38 +4 48
11 38 -10 45
12 38 -10 43
13 38 -7 42
14 38 -20 42
15 38 -7 41
16 38 -21 41
17 38 -14 39
18 38 -20 38
19 38 -25 36
20 38 -11 34

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