Lille were left frustrated by Evian as the visitors used an early goal to put the defending champions on the back foot.
Evian claim point after stunning hosts with early opener
Lille were left frustrated at home by Evian as the visitors used an early goal to put the defending Ligue 1 champions on the back foot at the Stadium Lille Metropole.
There were only four minutes on the clock when Saber Khelifa stunned the home crowd with a powerful half-volley.
Although Lille dominated the rest of the game, it took them until the 63rd minute to level through Benoit Pedretti's free-kick, although they could point to a Joe Cole goal wrongly disallowed for offside.
Khelifa latched on to a long ball from Olivier Sorlin and, after letting it take a bounce, lashed a shot over the stranded Mickael Landreau to open the scoring.
Flag raised
Lille thought they had levelled in the 13th minute when England international Cole found space in the area and beat Bertrand Laquait with an early shot, only to see the assistant referee's flag raised.
Moments later, Eden Hazard released Dimitri Payet in the area but his powerful shot went just the wrong side of the post.
Cole went close again moments before half-time, cutting in from the right wing and then unleashing a left-footed shot which beat Laquait but found the outside of the post.
They were level, somewhat fortuitously, early in the second half when Pedretti's curling free-kick wrong-footed everyone and bounced awkwardly before slipping past the unsighted goalkeeper.
Lille had late chances to win it, with Tulio De Melo firing wide when he only had the goalkeeper to beat in the 77th minute, before Sorlin almost scored an injury-time own goal as he tried to head Ludovic Obraniak's cross clear, narrowly missing the target.
