He was above the lot. In a high-stakes evening at Stamford Bridge, Renato Sanches donned the costume of best Lille player in the first leg on February 22, during the defeat of the Northerners (0-2) against Chelsea, in the round of 16 first leg of the Champions League. The 24-year-old Portuguese was the player Losc had to rely on for a crazy return match. But the Mastiffs will try to make up for their two-goal deficit on Wednesday March 16 against the Blues at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, without their midfielder. The master of the Dogues injured his left thigh against Saint-Etienne on Friday at the worst possible time.
Percussive and valuable in ball retention, sanches allowed his team to gain many meters on the Chelsea pitch. If Thomas Tuchel said that “the Lille were very strong physically, attacked high and were impressive in the pressing” in the first leg, Sanches and his eight balls recovered are not for nothing.
#UCL #LOSCCHE D-7⃣ This match of Renato Sanches in the first leg pic.twitter.com/TlIQ0LwX2W
— UEFA (@UEFAcom_fr) March 9, 2022
That is to say how much he will miss on Wednesday. The one that Christophe Galtier described as “muscle ball” was injured for the ninth time since his arrival in Lille in 2019. The Golden Boy 2016 (best young player playing in Europe) is suffering this time from a lesion of the femoral biceps muscle of the left thigh which deprives him of another decisive match.
Before this physical glitch, Renato Sanches chained high-flying performances. He notably delivered two assists against Clermont on March 6. This season, Losc behaves much better with the Portuguese (10 wins, 7 draws and 4 losses) than without him (6 wins, 6 draws and 5 losses). Above all, the Northerners are much more decisive when he is aligned, with 32 goals scored (in 21 games) against 18 (in 17 games) in his absence. In addition, he is the Lille player who creates the most chances per game, with an average of 2.05 key passes (the last passes before a shot), while the second, Jonathan Bamba, is at 1.48.
Without Renato Sanches, Losc will have to find another solution to finally shake the nets of the Blues. The task promises to be all the more difficult as its attacking elements suffer, like Jonathan David, scorer only once in 2022.
Jocelyn Gourvennec: “Renato Sanches is injured. We would have preferred to have it, but we have different possible options. The players who will play will have to be pumped up to 300%, like the substitutes. We have a delay to redo. We will have to play with heart and courage”.#LOSCCHE #UCL
— LOSC (@losclive) March 15, 2022
When asked, Jocelyn Gourvennec did not reveal anything about the tactics that Losc will adopt to replace him: “Renato is an extraordinary player, who can do a bit of everything and play in all positions. We will organize ourselves without him, we will do things differently.”
At the heart of the game, probably alongside Benjamin André, the Lille coach will have the choice between Xeka and Amadou Onana. If the first is more regularly aligned, the second presents a slightly more offensive and creative profile. “We will have to score but I have no doubts, we will score”promised Benjamin André.