At the end of a thrilling match from start to finish, it was finally RC Lens who won 3-2 at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard, a success that allowed them to take 5th place in Ligue 1.
But what a match, roughed up at the start of the match by a Saint-Etienne team determined to win, the Lensois have yet managed to score twice in just four minutes. Claude Puel’s players will certainly have some regrets given the number of situations they have created for themselves, but may be satisfied to have put a candidate for Europe in difficulty.
After enduring the incessant assaults of the Stéphanoise team for 19 minutes, the Lensois will manage to open the scoring through Florian Sotoca following a penalty caused by Arnaud Kalimuendo.
Four minutes later, Lens will make the break after a good recovery of the ball, Seko Fofana sends a good deep pass to Kalimuendo which concludes with a nice cross strike to the right of Jessy Moulin’s cage.
What a cruel scenario for ASSE which had nevertheless made a very good start to the match.
At only 20 years old, Loic Badé is truly the boss of the Lens defense and he has demonstrated it again this evening. In the eighth minute of play, he made a nice tackle slipped into the feet of Charles Abi who started on goal.
He did it again in the 29th minute of play, leaving a nice cross from Nordin who could have found a stephanois in the penalty area.
He saves his team again in extra time by intervening while controlling in front of Anthony Modeste in order to allow his team to maintain their advantage in the score. The man in the 7 Ligue 2 games with Le Havre never ceases to impress.
Author of the decisive pass that brought the second Lensois goal, Seko Fofana delivered a very good copy against the Stéphane team. True free electron in the middle, he will have put the defense of St-Etienne in great difficulty by his ability to eliminate, perforate and break lines.
He has done countless races without ever having seemed to run out of juice.
Big performance from the former Udinese player who is the man of the match.
Lens thought he had done the hard part by scoring his third goal in the 93rd minute thanks to David Costa who scored his first goal in Ligue 1 on this action.
But, a few moments later, Facundo Medina conceded a penalty for a hand in the area, penalty concluded by Bouanga. What an end to the game!
On a series of six consecutive games without defeat in Ligue 1 before this meeting, Lens’s main objective was not to lose to St-Etienne to continue this beautiful spiral.
It’s done since the northern team won 2-1 over Geoffroy Guichard and is now seven games lost in the league.
Thanks to their success in the evening, the Lensois took advantage of Metz’s home misstep against Angers (1-0 defeat) to take fifth place in the championship with 44 points.
Even if Marseille and Montpellier, who play later in the evening, were to win, they would not pass in front of Franck Haise’s team. The Lensois thus carry out the good operation of the evening.