Lille needed just six minutes to break the deadlock, and they did it in their first approach to Reims’ goal, as referee Benoit Bastien called a penalty following a VAR check, after Benjamin Andre was brought down inside the box.
David stepped up confidently and slotted the penalty home, giving Lille an early lead - and making history in the process, as he became the third player in Les Dogues’ history to score 100 goals across all competitions.
In response, Brest lacked the necessary ideas to assemble anything even remotely dangerous when going forward. And after initially struggling to take advantage of that, Lille used another inspiring moment from David to double their lead just before the break.
Sharp as ever, the Canada international marched on the right wing and delivered a low cross that was slotted home by Hakon Arnar Haraldsson for a timely second.
Brest needed some kind of spark in the second half to show they were still alive, and they pulled one back two minutes into the second half via Ludovic Ajorque, who blasted an unstoppable effort from the edge of the box past Lucas Chevalier to cut the deficit in half while scoring the 50th Ligue 1 goal of his career.
What’s more, the towering striker came close to equalising shortly after, but Chevalier responded with a close-range save.
The visitors had several chances to even things up, but their lack of ideas punished them once again.
After a sequence of errors from Brest’s defensive line, it was, somewhat inevitably, David who slotted home, after benefitting from a rebound off Marco Bizot to notch his second consecutive two-goal performance, giving him a league-leading 11 for the season.
That finished Brest once and for all, allowing Lille to cruise to victory in the end.
Both sides will prepare for their upcoming UEFA Champions League matches, though they’ll do so in different fashion.
While Lille has extended its undefeated streak to 14 games across all competitions (W8, D6), Brest have lost four of their last five (W1) and five of the last seven (W2), so they’re in dire need of a bounce-back effort at soon as possible to prevent their season from derailing after a decent start, particularly in Europe.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jonathan David (LOSC Lille)