Lens is reviving, Nantes is thinking about Europe. Panoramic
TOPS/FLOPS – The Northerners who are reviving for Europe, the tribute of Bollaert, of the Canaries elsewhere … Find what caught the attention of the editorial staff after Lens-Nantes (3-1).
TOPS
Lens returns to victory
This one does good. Long in second place in the championship, Lens had been struggling for a few games, going four games without a win. A bad series which had the immediate effect of seeing them leave the Ligue 1 podium. Today, after a very successful performance, Franck Haise’s men regained the taste of victory, in front of an audience of Bollaert yet another times at the rendezvous.
Machado the Repeat Offender
But what has stung Deiver Machado? It is well known, the right foot of left-handed people is only used to get on the bus. However, the Colombian once again distinguished himself with a goal from his “bad foot”. The left piston took advantage of a badly returned ball by the Nantes defense to clean the top corner of Lafont with a sublime curling strike from the right foot. The Lensois defender scored the same goal last week against Lyon.
Machado scored his second goal in two games. PASCAL ROSSIGNOL / REUTERS
Bollaert’s tribute
Solidarity in a terrible moment. Last week, Ignatius Ganago lost his 5-year-old daughter to illness. The Cameroonian did not take part in the match against Juventus and was also not present today. The Bollaert stadium wanted to wish a vibrant tribute to Chloé. The whole stadium cheered before the game, and the players wore a shirt with the name of the player’s granddaughter. In the fifth minute, the stadium cheered once again, through the ‘Courage Ignatius’ banners.
FLOPS
The errors of the Nantes defense
If the Sang et Or very clearly dominated the meeting, they benefited from the help of the Nantes defense. Very far in the markings, the Lensois had a lot of space to carry out the offensives. Worse still, the three goals are the result of an error from Nantes. On the first two, the ball is very badly returned, returning directly to the feet of Machado, then Thomasson, even if everything remained to be done on the strike of the Colombian, unlike that of the former Strasbourg player. On the third goal, Traore covers Openda for offside, and then scores against his camp on the cross of the Belgian.
Nantes had its heart, head and legs elsewhere
Nantes did not make a non-match, but were still overwhelmed for almost the entire game. The sequence of meetings was fatal for the Canaries, three days after the first leg of the Europa League, four days before the return. Koumbouaré and his men, close to the feat, most certainly had their minds set on Europe. Blas, Nantes’ best player, was on the bench throughout the game and did not even warm up, a symbol of management for the next deadlines.
