Paris Saint-Germain were denied a fourth consecutive H2H win - but still returned to the top of Ligue 1 - after Ethan Mbappé fired a late equaliser to earn LOSC Lille a 1-1 draw.
Without six first-team regulars due to injury and with only seven substitutes on the bench, including two goalkeepers, PSG were certainly short on numbers and fielded a youthful starting line-up featuring four teenagers.
Both teams were knocking the ball around nicely enough in the early stages without those moves leading to too many forays into dangerous territory.
Indeed, even the first effort on target in the contest, which came midway through the first half, saw Olivier Giroud’s header float harmlessly into the arms of former Lille goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier, before Lucas Hernández blocked Thomas Meunier’s shot over the bar.
At the other end, Bradley Barcola raced through close to half time after Nabil Bentaleb’s strike from range was blocked by Lee Kang-in and ricocheted into Barcola’s path, but the forward could feel Lille’s excellent 18-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi on his shoulder, drifting wide and firing off target as a result.
Both Luis Enrique and his opposite number Bruno Genesio will have been yearning for more creativity from their respective sides, although neither man made a change at the break.
Keen to spark the game into life early in the second period, Giroud attempted an overhead kick from Romain Perraud’s cross, which didn’t quite come off, before Bentaleb’s effort was easily gathered in by Chevalier.
Berke Ozer, who incredibly saved three penalties against Roma in Lille’s 1-0 UEFA Europa League win on Thursday, then made his first reasonably difficult stop of the evening, tipping away Barcola’s curler.
Hot on the heels of that chance, Enrique rolled the dice as the rested trio of Vitinha, Nuno Mendes, and Achraf Hakimi entered the action, with Barcola one of the players making way.
Hakimi and Mendes soon made their mark on the match, with the former winning a somewhat soft free-kick and the latter finding Ozer’s left-hand corner spectacularly from more than 25 yards, even if the Turkish goalkeeper did get a finger to the strike.
Genesio consequently became more attacking with his substitutions, but it was one of his starting XI who duly had the next decent opportunity, with Matias Fernandez-Pardo screwing wide, having fashioned some space.
Lille also rode their luck, with Ozer pushing over Lee’s scorcher and Hakimi lacking composure, but it was Mbappe, with brother Kylian watching on at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, who capitalised on Lee’s giveaway to cut inside and beat Chevalier, causing his former club to drop points.
In the process, the hosts ended a run of back-to-back defeats and enter the international break on a high, while PSG lead Marseille by a point at the Ligue 1 summit.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Aissa Mandi (LOSC Lille)