by Mick the Ram

Golden Lion, the current champions of the Martinique Division d’Honneur, suffered an almighty mauling at the hands of Lille Olympique Sporting Club (OSC) in the French Cup, losing 12-0, which is a record victory for the Ligue 1 side.

As the Martinique representatives, they would have travelled the 4,000 miles to the northern French city with hopes of causing an upset as one of the overseas territories invited to compete each year.

By half time they were probably wishing they were already back on the plane, as they trailed 7-0, so they may actually have been relieved come the final whistle, to have kept the score down to just 12.

Lille had a total of 37 shots in the game, with two players converting hat-tricks, compared to just the one shot – off target – from Golden Lion.

Just off the pace in the league

The Martinique side are based in the town of Saint-Joseph and currently sit 5th in a league of 14 teams. They arrived in the last 64 of the Coupe de France on the back of a 3-2 victory over Metrople Troyenne, in the previous round.

Looking to spring a surprise

Over the years there has been no shortage of shocks in the cup, so the Caribbean side will have travelled to the 50,000 capacity Stade Pierre-Mauroy, with hope of catching their illustrious opponents on an off-day, possibly fielding a weakened team.

Equally, the competition has been open to representatives of French territories since the mid-1960s, and comprehensive wins are not uncommon.

Strong side named

After flying in from the heat of close to 30 degrees Celsius back in Martinique, they immediately had to adapt to temperatures hovering only just above freezing.

Despite Lille pushing for a Champions League spot they have a proud cup pedigree, winning on six previous occasions and only Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille having greater success, so it was not a massive surprise to see coach Paulo Fonseca put out what was very close to his strongest line-up.

Seven up at half-time

Turkish midfielder Yusuf Yazici broke Golden Lion’s early resistance in the 11th minute before Canadian international striker Jonathan David doubled the lead with 20 minutes of the half remaining.

That goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Caribbean side and they conceded a further five goals (four of them inside nine minutes), before the referee gave them some respite with his half-time whistle.

No easing off

At 7-0 some teams may have eased off and cruised through the rest of the game, but Lille pressed on and continued to pepper Golden Lion’s national goalkeeper Gilles Meslien, who did his best to keep the score as respectable as possible.

David completed his hat-trick and was joined by Kosovo winger Edon Zhegrova, who netted three times himself. Yazici scored another and there was also a brace for Iceland’s Hakon Arnar Haraldsson. Tiago Santos and Amine Messoussa found their way onto the score sheet to round off the scoring.

Sporting guard of honour

There was a nice touch at the end of the game when the Lille players gave their opponents a guard of honour as they made their way off the pitch. Golden Lion can actually take some comfort from learning that they performed better than French Guiana side CSC Cayenne, who were hammered 14-0 at Paris FC, back in 2021.

​Respect for opponent and competition

In his post-match interview, Fonseca was keen to emphasise that his side had taken the match very seriously and that they wanted to show both their opponents and the competition, the upmost respect.

“Although the most important thing was to win the match and qualify for the next round, it was also important to play the match with intensity. Today we did a lot of good things, we pressed high and made a lot of chances.”

They will be highly fancied to go deep into the competition and with a kind draw they will fancy their prospects of lifting the trophy at the end of the season.