Lille have been top of Ligue 1 Uber Eats for 13 of the last 14 rounds of fixtures, and they maintained their one-point advantage on champions Paris Saint-Germain with victory at their Stade Pierre-Mauroy, which was sealed with goals from Turkish pair Burak Yilmaz and Zeki Celik.

If Lille can better PSG's results over the remaining three fixtures, a first Ligue 1 Uber Eats title since 2011 will be theirs. Northern rivals RC Lens, and then AS Saint-Étienne and Angers SCO lie in wait for les Dogues, and Fonte is determined to see his side stay on track.

"We continue the war," the longtime Southampton centre-back said after the game. "We'll keep going until the end. There are three games left and I believe each one is difficult. Lens next Friday is the most important thing. It's the derby, but after that we also need to beat Saint-Étienne, and perhaps Angers.

Lens is an important match, but we must treat all the games like a cup final. We're there, in the fight, and we're prepared to win every match. Whether or not you win you must give everything. That's what we're going to do, we're going to give it our all."

A European champion with Portugal in 2016, Fonte has every chance of adding more silverware to his mantlepiece according to his former Southampton teammate Morgan Schneiderlin, who lined up against him on Saturday.

"Lille are a young team on paper but they gave a lot of experience and savvy," He said. "They know what they're doing out there. They're very well set up. It's going to be very difficult for anyone to catch them."