RC Lens: in Ajaccio, keep an eye on the promoters

AC Ajaccio, who find Ligue 1 at home in a full and fervent stadium, will not be easy “prey” for Lensois this Sunday (15), in the heat.

Florent Sotoca, author of a hat-trick against Brest, and Lensois, will be firmly expected at Ajaccio. Photo Ludovic Maillard - The voice of the north — Florent Sotoca, author of a hat-trick against Brest, and Lensois, will be firmly expected at Ajaccio. Photo Ludovic Maillard – The voice of the north

Published: August 14, 2022 at 11:05

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A promoter with a limited budget (22 M €, 40 less than RC Lens), whose “historic” coach, Olivier Pants since 2014, said he was impressed by Lens, watch out!

“
We know it won’t be easy, Jonathan Gradit specifies from the start. In Ligue 2 they scored very few goals but suffered very few. »39 scored for just 19, a record in short. “
We expect a complicated game, continues the artesian central defender, in a particular context.
It will be hot and we know that it is always hot even in the Corsican stadiums. It will be important to keep our game ideas. “

The ACA had no the most advanced in Ligue 1 since 2014 and no club course since 2017 and the descent of SC Bastia. This Sunday, for his return to the elite, the small François-Coty stadium, transformed after suffering lot of work and the structures from the climb at the end of May (5 million euros of investments were necessary), will be sold out, transported by over 9,000 people, including 300 supporters of blood and gold in the parking lots.

In the game the graduates, who kept the form of last season, were not ridiculous at the opening of the championship in Lyon (2-1), game which, however, costs them the absence of the expert striker Romain Hamouma, suspended against Lens after the red card at Groupama Stadium.

“Ajaccio tries to defend by advancing”

If RC Lens found spaces against the low wall of Brest during the first day (3-2), it is not certain that Ajacciens, who have nothing to lose in this type of match, will present themselves in the same configuration as the Bretons.

” I don’t know if Ajaccio will really wait for usinsists the coach, Franck Haise. When you see the game in Lyon, of course, they played with an organized wall, but that’s the way it is for all teams. This is a team that has tried to defend itself by advancing, which has not put itself in front of its 16 meters. Against us it may be different, but from what I saw, especially at 11 against 11 for 25 minutes, it was not a team waiting to suffer. We will see, what matters is that we always want to animate and that our animations are multiple, as they have been for two years. The idea is always to make some changes. “

To date, Lens has never won in Ajaccio, nor in Corsica, in Ligue 1.

Ligue 1: RC Lens does not change anything, the compositions of Ajaccio – Racing