The match: 0-1
Lens looks up, Nantes looks down. The meeting between the Sang et Or and the Canaries, this Saturday at La Beaujoire, rather well transcribed the dynamics of the moment between two teams who are not quite sailing in the same waters of the Championship. The RCL took advantage of a goal from David Pereira Da Costa at the start of the second period (48th) to achieve a second success in a row and temporarily come back three lengths behind Brest (3rd).
The FCN, for its part, suffered a fifth setback in six Championship matches with a margin for error now reduced to nothing. The 16th and current play-off, Lyon, will have the opportunity to return to their height in the event of success against OM on Sunday evening.
This shows that the graft has been difficult to take hold since the replacement of Pierre Aristouy by Jocelyn Gourvennec on the Nantes bench. While the Canaries found Jean-Charles Castelletto and Mostafa Mohamed – returning from the CAN – they once again had to deal with contrary facts of play: hit in a duel, Kelvin Amian was taken out on a stretcher in the 12th minute; Tino Kadewere was deprived of a goal for an unclear offside position (20th); before Moussa Sissoko was also forced to give up his place due to injury (58th). If Nantes pushed too clumsily at the end of the match to try to snatch the point of the draw, they also came across a very good Brice Samba before, which could fuel their regrets.
The Lens goalkeeper was one of the great men of this match, just like Pereira Da Costa. It only took 54 seconds for the Portuguese to shine with a strike on Alban Lafont’s crossbar, and it didn’t take him much time, after the restart, to improve on a superb Facundo Medina opening. Very close to the double (63rd), he could also have caused the expulsion of Nathan Zeze (51st) but neither Mr. Batta nor the VAR flinched. This will perhaps prevent the people of Nantes from railing against arbitration once again.
The player: From the great Samba
Without him (and the clumsiness of the Nantais), RC Lens would probably have returned to the break with a one-goal handicap. The French international goalkeeper worked on a curling shot from Tino Kadewere (35th), and he won his face-to-face with Mostafa Mohamed, perfectly served by Moussa Sissoko (39th). But it was above all his reflex stop, on his line, just before the break which stood out: he pulled away to avoid a csc from Ruben Aguilar (43rd). In ambush, Nicolas Pallois failed to take advantage.
