Lens beats Bordeaux, Strasbourg consolidates its fourth place
THE GAME
While Vladimir Petkovic was removed from his coaching duties and David Guion only took over on Monday, former Bordeaux midfielder Jaroslav Plasil was in the visitors’ dugout. The Girondins had conceded 58 goals – more than any other side in Europe’s top five leagues – before kick-off and were yet to record a clean sheet. Within 10 minutes, Plasil saw that last streak extend, and at just 27 minutes the game was almost over.
The presence of the experienced Marcelo in the visitors’ backline did nothing to stem the worrying tide as Lens quickly seized the initiative. Rémi Oudin lost the ball and Jonathan Clauss replied on the right. His center is not treated by the Bordeaux defense, Gaël Kakuta recovers the ball and finds Arnaud Kalimuendo who exceeds Gaëtan Poussin (10th).
Poussin, again in the goal of Benoît Costil, injured, is soon beaten again. Gideon Mensah brought down Christopher Wooh and Kakuta fired wide to double the hosts’ lead (22nd). Five minutes later, Fofana’s late run into the area allowed him to catch Massadio Haïdara’s pass before sending a shot up past Poussin (27′).
If Guion was watching, he would have had no illusions about the magnitude of the task at hand. The former Reims coach can however count on a talented front line. Jean Onana’s through pass allows Alberth Elis to overtake Wulker Farinez (33rd) and give Bordeaux, who had lost their previous two away matches by six and five goals, a semblance of hope.
This optimism was further reinforced at the start of the second half. New signing Anel Ahmedhodzic picked Hwang Ui-Jo, and the South Korea international took his league tally to double digits for the 2021/22 season with a clean low shot (53rd).
Ignatius Ganago could have made life easier for Lens if he had beaten Poussin one-on-one (67′) and Fofana hit a post late in the game (90+1′) before Bordeaux snatched a point in additional time. Farinez made a mess of a ball into the box, and Przemyslaw Frankowski cleared Ricardo Mangas’ shot (90+4′) to hand Franck Haise’s men their third win in their last 11 league games.
THE PLAYER: Seko Fofana
The Lensois captain was once again the central figure in his team’s victory. A beautifully taken – and ultimately winning – goal capped another superb individual display.
THE STAT: 3
Lens have won three of their last four league games with Bordeaux, but have lost 41 times in 104 top-flight encounters with the Girondins, more than against any other Monegasque sidebar (45).
Strasbourg moved to 41 points – just one behind third-placed Nice – to register their highest tally so far in a season since winning the league in 1978/79 thanks to Gameiro’s first-half goal at Stade Raymond Kopa .
Nantes moved up to ninth – just two points from fifth – thanks to Moses Simon’s free-kick (17th) while Saint-Etienne came out of the bottom two, at least until Metz’s game against Marseille later on Sunday, thanks to another late push that gave them a third straight win.
After scoring three times in the final eight minutes to beat Montpellier last time out, Pascal Dupraz’s men found the net twice in the final 19 minutes through Mahdi Camara (71st) and Timothée Kolodziejczak (82nd) for come back from behind and beat Clermont.
This victory allowed the Greens to equalize 21 points with Troyes, beaten 5-1 in Brest. The hosts picked up a fifth win in seven games with Martin Satriano scoring twice to score his first Ligue 1 Uber Eats goals on his debut while Franck Honorat was involved in three of his side’s strikes, himself scoring two time.
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