Lens inflicted their first defeat of the season on Paris Saint-Germain (3-1) and revived the suspense in Ligue 1, in the clash between the first two, this Sunday for the 17th day.
The year begins in Blood and Gold The Artesian collective has eclipsed the absences of two big names in the capital, Lionel Messi (on leave) and Neymar (suspended), and the dolphin returns to four lengths behind the leader.
Notably with a magnificent game by Loïs Openda, scorer and passer, Franck Haise’s team, who experienced his 100th game in charge of Lensois, deserved their victory, in a glowing Bollaert stadium.
Lens also take advantage of this prestigious success to extend their lead to seven points over Olympique de Marseille (3rd), who play in Montpellier on Monday (19:00). Above all, with this ninth victory in nine matches in its stadium, Racing is truly in the running for a second world title, after that of 1998.
PSG are still ahead, but this first defeat in all competitions since 20 March 2022 (3-0 in Monaco) revealed flaws, especially in defence, and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma appeared feverish.
This time Kylian Mbappé, acclaimed for a long time by Bollaert in the warm-up, was unable to save his team, like on Wednesday against Strasbourg, where he snatched the victory (2-1) in the last second.
Lyon falls
Far behind, Monaco (4th) recovered in OM by beating Brest (1-0), thanks to a superb shot by the Russian Aleksandr Golovin.
Olympique Lyonnais is very far from the podium after the home defeat against Clermont (1-0), on a penalty at the end of the match by the Austrian Muhammed Cham (86th). A real setback. The revolution of the new coach, Laurent Blanc, does not advance.
After the good victory in Brest (4-2), the Rhodanians have taken another step back, and are only 8th, nine points behind OM, followed closely by their winner of the day, two lengths away . At the bottom of the table, FC Nantes (14th) moved away from the red zone by dominating Auxerre (18th) with a goal from Marcus Coco (1-0), awaiting the continuation of Monday’s matches.
The SCO of Angers remains in last place with the ninth defeat in a row, against the progress of the game, against Lorient (2-1), who revived after six games without a win.
At the Raymond-Kopa stadium in Angers, the stands were very sparse for this unusual day of January 1st. The loudest were the few hundred people from Lorient in the parking lot and the dozens of Moroccans who flocked to wave flags in honor of Boufal and Ounahi, the two SCO Lions who finished fourth at the World Cup in Qatar.
Returning from vacation on Saturday, the two players were greeted by the club and briefly greeted the fans before kick-off.
Supporters’ organizations had called for a boycott of the match in protest against meetings being held during the week and on 1 January, with a banner on the Loire stand reading: “LFP, broadcasters: your programming is killing our stadiums”.
Even the Bollaert stadium got annoyed, preferring to play “on the weekends”, but the atmosphere was still volcanic!
