Monaco vs Lille. French Ligue 1.
Stade Louis IIAttendance7,147.
Friday 16 March 2018 22:36, UK
Stevan Jovetic came off the bench to score the winner as second-placed Monaco beat Lille 2-1 at home in Ligue 1 on Friday.
The Montenegro forward timed his run perfectly to latch onto a defence-splitting pass from Joao Moutinho and then delicately clipped the ball over goalkeeper Mike Maignan in the 61st minute.
Defending champions Monaco are 14 points behind league leaders Paris Saint-Germain and seven ahead of third-placed Marseille with eight games of the season remaining.
Top scorer Radaeml Falcao returned from a thigh injury to lead the Monaco attack at the expense of Jovetic, who was dropped despite scoring five goals in the four games Falcao missed.
Falcao has 17 league goals but looked well off the pace and barely made an impact in the first half.
Still, he had enough energy to run into the stands after the final whistle and hold up a Monaco shirt in honor of Prince Albert, who was watching at Stade Louis II as he celebrated his 60th birthday.
Lille took the lead in the 16th minute when striker Lebo Mothiba was given too much space and turned in a cross from the right.
Rony Lopes equalised with his 10th league goal just before half-time, beating Maignan at the second attempt after being set up by Senegal forward Keita Balde.
But Jovetic grabbed the winner in the second half after coming on for Balde.
