Lille’s cracking 3-1 win against Saint-Étienne on Saturday afternoon keeps them second in Ligue 1 and three points clear of Marseille. The game also showcased their young Bip Bip strikeforce – Jonathan Bamba, Jonathan Ikoné and Nicolas Pépé – who picked up their name from the cartoon Bip Bip et Coyote, the French version of The Road Runner – and are using their speed and trickery to rival PSG’s very own MCN trio.
Lille are yet to face Lyon or PSG this season, but in their last two matches they have recorded a comprehensive 3-0 win over Marseille and beaten a well organised Saint-Étienne side who arrived at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in fourth place after three straight wins. They have now scored 17 goals in just nine league games this season.
Their top scorer so far, Bamba, has been a fixture in Ligue 1 for some time now, having made his debut in 2015 aged just 18. He came into his own while playing for Saint-Étienne last season, when he scored seven goals all campaign – a figure he has already equalled this season. The braces he picked up against Marseille and Saint-Étienne in the last two weekends also show he can also be effective against Lille’s toughest opponents.
Ikoné, the youngest of the trio at just 20, is also burnishing his reputation this season after a fitful 18 months on loan at Montpellier, but Pépé is the player who is really taking the league by storm. With six goals and four assists, the 23-year-old has been involved in more than half of Lille’s 19 league goals. He is a far cry from the player who struggled to get a game at Angers behind the then on-loan Bamba 18 months ago.
Like many players who have emerged in French football in recent times – including Ikoné and Bamba – Pépé comes from the Paris suburbs, but he started his career with Poitiers, then in France’s fifth division. He impressed enough to be signed by Angers at the age of just 16. He has been well supported by his family along the way, with his father even registering as a coach to help his son.
Uncapped by France’s youth sides, Pépé’s progression was accelerated by a surprise call-up from the Ivory Coast in November 2016 for a match against France. Despite his status as an international, he often looked like a mercurial talent for Angers so the jury was still out on him when he moved to Lille decided to pay €9m for his services in the summer of 2017.
Lille signed Pépé at the behest of Marcelo Bielsa not for his achievements (he had scored just three times that season), but for his raw potential. Bielsa recognised Pépé’s talent, but he did little to foster it, using him as a central striker after the departures of Nicolas De Préville and Eder. He struggled to adjust to the pressure of being a starter in the top flight for the first time and his profligacy made him a target for the fans’ ire as relegation continued to threaten the side, even after Bielsa was dismissed. However, with the arrival of Lebo Mothiba, Pépé was at last able to play alongside a natural striker and he became a devastatingly effective force as a right-sided forward, scoring nine goals and providing five assists in the second half of last season. Only Florian Thauvin and Memphis Depay were involved in more goals in that span in Ligue 1.
This season, only Neymar and Kylian Mbappé have been more decisive than Pépé. While his success has been a long time coming, there was little doubt he would succeed among those who saw him emerge. “It’s the culmination of the work he’s done,” reflected Abdel Bouhazama, the reserve manager and academy director at Angers. Bouhazama was instrumental in getting Angers’ academy up and running as they earned promotion, and he regards Pépé as the “flag-bearer” in the club’s renewed focus on youth.
Barcelona and Arsenal have apparently expressed interest, which could easily cause a young player to lose focus, but Pépé says he has a clear “career plan” and is unfazed by attention from Europe’s elite, having rejected Lyon this summer. His performances in recent weeks have been exhilarating as he has scored goals, set them up and facilitated Bamba’s good form. Whatever the future holds for Pépé, he and the rest of Bip Bip have made Lille, so dire last season, Ligue 1’s biggest surprise, and there’s nothing cartoonish about that.
Ligue 1 talking points
Kylian Mbappeé scored four goals in 13 minutes as PSG beat Lyon 5-0 in Paris. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
• Recent encounters between the top four in Ligue 1 have tended to match or exceed expectations, but PSG’s home games have proved an exception to this rule. Cauldrons at the Vélodrome and Parc OL are replaced with the oddly subdued, run-of-the-mill atmosphere that accompanies the quintessential Parisian stroll, despite their ultras’ best efforts, while the matches themselves often play out in similar fashion. On this occasion, PSG’s 5-0 thrashing of Lyon on Sunday night was enlivened by a degree of spite. Following a VAR review, PSG defender Presnel Kimpembe was rightly dismissed after an over-the-ball lunge on Tanguy N’Dombélé, before Lyon’s Lucas Tousart followed with a trip on Kylian Mbappé and a second yellow just before half-time, the score still at 1-0. Neymar’s yellow could easily have been a different colour as well. As space opened up after the break, Kylian Mbappé scored four goals in 13 minutes to help PSG win their ninth match in a row, a record in the French top flight. With PSG eight points clear at the top of the table, the title race is already over.
• Nantes battled their way to a draw at Lyon last Saturday but, with the club still sitting second bottom in the league, their president, Waldemar Kita, still decided to sack manager Miguel Cardoso. Kita’s son Franck, the general director at the club, had struggled to convince his father that Cardoso was the right appointment in the summer in the first place. Cardoso’s ideas were very different from those of his predecessor, Claudio Ranieri, and he lacked the players to implement them, so most observers thought he would need time. Kita senior disagreed. Worryingly, incoming coach Vahid Halilhodzic – who managed Lille, PSG and Rennes around the turn of the century – presided over Nantes’ worst result yet this season, as they lost 3-0 at Atlantic derby rivals Bordeaux on Sunday. “Coach Vahid”, as the Bosnian is known because of his tactical nous, is Kita’s 13th managerial appointment in his 11 years as president. With Nantes already four points from safety in an extremely competitive bottom half, Kita’s perpetually itchy finger could finally prove the club’s downfall.
Ligue 1 results
Toulouse 1-1 Nice
Nimes 0-0 Reims
Guingamp 1-1 Montpellier
Angers 2-2 Strasbourg
Amiens 1-0 Dijon
Lille 3-1 St Etienne
PSG 5-0 Lyon
Monaco 1-2 Rennes
Marseille 2-0 Caen
Bordeaux 3-0 Nantes
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