Toulouse rue missed chances as Ueda fires Lille to another Ligue 1 win
Ayase Ueda came up with the decisive moment as Lille beat Toulouse 1-0 to stay unbeaten in Ligue 1, while home coach Jens Berthel Askou was left still searching for his first win.
This was a game Toulouse will probably wonder about for a while. They created more than enough in the opening half, pushed Lille back for long spells and had the better chances for most of the night, but once again they were made to pay for not taking them.
Match highlight
Cristian Casseres almost gave Toulouse the perfect opening inside 5 minutes when he crashed a long-range effort against the bar.
Lille were under heavy pressure and Berke Ozer had to keep them alive, first with a superb one-handed save to stop Santiago Hidalgo's thunderous left-footed strike from 25 yards.
Lille almost made life even worse for themselves when Nathan Ngoy appeared to handle the ball in the area under pressure from Jacen Russell-Rowe. There was a long check and referee Mathieu Vernice was sent to the pitchside monitor, but in a huge escape for the visitors, he decided there was not enough to award a penalty.
Before half-time, Ozer had to stay sharp again, first denying Hidalgo from close range and then stopping Russell-Rowe in a one-on-one as Lille somehow reached the break still level.
Davide Ancelotti clearly hated what he had seen. The Lille boss made 2 changes at half-time, and while they did not suddenly turn the game into a one-sided contest, they at least helped slow Toulouse down and break the momentum that had been running against them.
The 2nd half never really found the same rhythm. Both teams struggled to build sustained attacks, although Toulouse still looked the more likely to score for a while. Around the middle of the half, Rasmus Nicolaisen rose well from an outswinging corner and nearly broke the deadlock with a header in the area.
Lille punished that miss just over 15 minutes from time. Romain Perraud delivered the ball in, Ayase Ueda attacked the near post sharply, and the Japanese striker finished at the 2nd attempt to give the visitors the lead against the run of the evening.
That was a brutal blow for Toulouse. They had one huge chance to respond almost immediately when Casper Tengstedt, who played with Ueda at Feyenoord last season, got clean through on goal. But he blazed over.
Lille held on from there to make it 5 straight wins over Toulouse and preserve their unbeaten start to the Ligue 1 season, while the home side were left to suffer back-to-back home defeats for the first time since April 2025.
