08.12.2021 23:26 h

Gomes strike helps Lille to 'history' against Wolfsburg

England Under-21 international Angel Gomes scored his first Champions League goal Wednesday as Lille cruised to a 3-1 win away to Wolfsburg to reach the last 16 for only the second time in their history.

Gomes, 21, struck 12 minutes from time to seal a comfortable win for the reigning French champions and dump toothless Wolfsburg out of Europe.

The win meant Lille finished top of Group G ahead of Red Bull Salzburg and progressed to the knockout stages for the first time since 2006/07.

"We're aware that we're making history and we want to make some more. We now want to focus in order to achieve something in the knockout stage," Jonathan Ikone told RMC Sport.

Wolfsburg, meanwhile, are out of Europe after finishing bottom of the group.

"It really hurts, I have to be honest," Wolfsburg midfielder Maximilian Arnold told DAZN.

Lille took the lead through Burak Yilmaz on 11 minutes with a ruthless counter-attack directly from a Wolfsburg corner.

Ikone tore down the right wing for the visitors and picked out Yilmaz on the box, who found the bottom corner with a first-touch finish.

Wolfsburg remained uninspiring in the second half, and narrowly escaped going two goals down after a mistake from goalkeeper Koen Casteels on the hour mark.

In-form Canadian striker Jonathan David added a second shortly afterwards, a third goal in successive Champions League games for the current leading scorer in Ligue 1.

"In the second half of the Champions League campaign we have been more solid defensively and more compact. On top of that, we've been scoring goals. I think I could have scored two tonight," David told Canal Plus.

Renato Steffen snatched a consolation goal for Wolfsburg in the 89th minute, but it was too little, too late to prevent a limp exit from the European stage.