The National Times - Lille deny Juventus in Champions League stalemate

Having upset the odds to beat both Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in their last two outings, Lille were on course for another famous victory when David put them ahead on 27 minutes.

That was his fourth goal in the Champions League this season, but two-time European champions Juve drew level through a Dusan Vlahovic penalty on the hour mark.

Thiago Motta's Juventus were looking to bounce back from a 1-0 loss at home to VfB Stuttgart in their last outing and are level with Lille on seven points halfway through the league phase.

Next up for Juve is a tough trip to Aston Villa and a home game against Manchester City, but one more win for the Italian giants should be enough for them to at least qualify for the play-off round.

Lille, meanwhile, have exceeded expectations so far and will hope to get more points on the board in their final two outings of the calendar year against Bologna and Sturm Graz.

Their two star attacking players combined brilliantly for the opener, with winger Edon Zhegrova turning superbly away from Juan Cabal before releasing David.

Scorer of the winner against Real Madrid and a double against Atletico, David ran through to finish emphatically past Michele Di Gregorio to make it 1-0.

Juve had a goal disallowed for offside before that and Lille were then grateful to goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier for a brilliant save to deny Vlahovic.

The visitors then had another goal ruled out when the flag came up in the 41st minute to deny Teun Koopmeiners after he had swept in a Kenan Yildiz cutback.

However, the Serie A side won a penalty on the hour mark when Francisco Conceicao went down as Benjamin Andre left his leg out in the box.

Vlahovic made no mistake from the spot and the game ended all square.

B.Scott--TNT