RC Lens stands up to everything!

These Blood and Gold rise from everything. Those Blood and Gold sang louder than usual this afternoon. These Blood and Gold, never beaten, have not lost for thirteen games. And better than that, when everything had gone awry against Nîmes, they managed to snatch a victory (2-1) which allows them to still believe in it, four days from the end, before going in Paris next Saturday.

It is an achievement, because Lens, who had started well and led in the score, had to play numerically outnumbered for more than an hour after the expulsion of Sylla (24th). The Lensois, who deplored ten players unavailable at kick-off, then accumulated miseries. By conceding in particular an equalizer on a generous penalty awarded to the Nîmes (1-1, 53rd). And the loss of their goalkeeper Leca ten minutes from time due to injury. all ?

But Lens has resources this season and he was going to prove it again.

Lens starts strong

The first period offered two very distinct sequences. After a good start, the Sang et Or, very enterprising and good in the alternation of long game short game, logically found the fault. There was a first alert when Jean, launched in the depth, placed a good cross shot painfully diverted by Reynet (16th). And in the following minute, the Lensois, who had not let their opponents breathe, pressed again, with a nice number from Pereira Da Costa, who for his first start in Ligue 1, chained a good dribble and a center to six meters that Ganago and Guessoum took at the same time. This gave an effect to the ball and sent it into the opposite window (1-0, 17th).

Sylla sees red

But Racing hardly had time to take advantage of its advantage. On an innocuous action, Sylla, who had not seen Ripart, raised his leg in the face of the Nîmes attacker, who collapsed in blood. The referee had no choice but to exclude the left lensois piston (24th). And the face of the game was changed.

At ten, Lens had to reorganize, leaving Jean in favor of Boura. And Nîmes could take control of the game, facing the Artesians who abandoned the ball defending five, plus a line of three in the middle and the only Ganago in tip.

Generous penalty for Nîmes

Fatally, in the second half, under the pressure, Racing was going to give in but in unclear circumstances, since Clauss’s fault on Guessoum in the box was not obvious. But Aurélien Petit therefore whistled a penalty that Ferhat transformed (1-1, 53rd). This left the Sang et Or rather distraught and even in sequences lost on the field, with possibilities for Fomba who was blocked (64th) and Elissson who found the bar on a free kick (67th).

It should be seen as a sign of fate. And Franck Haise’s players indeed found a second wind to produce again an offensive effort which bore fruit after the entry of Kalimuendo (67th). The Lensois began to provoke again, to strike. And on a corner from Mauricio, Haïdara got out of the pack to come to the horizontal and place a scissor volley from the unstoppable left (2-1, 76th).

What purpose ! And what an achievement in the face of incredulous and stunned Nîmes, unable to come back to face a delighted Lensois at the final whistle.

– .