This Friday, in Matchday 2 of the 2026-2027 Ligue 1 season, Paris Saint-Germain faced Lille at the Stade Pierre Mauroy. Nabil Bentaleb, Lille’s 31-year-old midfielder, spoke to Ligue1+ after the 2-2 draw.
Bentaleb: “Naturally, we deserved better tonight.”
That must be a tough pill to swallow?
Naturally, I think we deserved better tonight. We gave it our all; it’s hard to fault the squad for anything. We knew we needed a perfect performance to get a positive result against this team. We had it in our grasp, but football comes down to small things and fine details—and that’s what we lacked at the end of the match.
Do you understand why he let play continue?
No. No. He said that they had wasted a minute leading up to their goal. We won’t get into the details; we know the consequences. We are very disappointed, and I think we deserved better tonight.
Bentaleb: “We were forced to drop back.”
Is it inevitable that you have to drop back against a PSG side like this?
Naturally, it’s complicated. Especially when you’re leading, there’s a tendency to want to drop back. That isn’t necessarily the best solution. But you’re up against very good players capable of pushing your defensive block back. There’s Kvara; naturally, he forces us to drop back 10 or 20 meters.
It wasn’t necessarily what we wanted, but we were forced to drop back. We still held up pretty well defensively. Perhaps we could have kept possession a bit longer after winning the ball back. But that’s easy to say—it’s a different story out on the pitch.
