With victories over Lille and Rennes under their belt, a trip to relegation battlers Saint-Etienne seemed the perfect way for Lens to extend their winning start to 2022.
Franck Haise stuck with the 3-4-3 formation used against Rennes and made just one change, swapping out David Costa for Wesley Saïd.
Saint-Etienne’s clash with Angers getting postponed due to a Covid outbreak meant they had only played one match since the winter break – their Coupe de France victory over fourth division Jura Sud. Pascal Dupraz made four changes to that side, bringing in Paul Bernardoni, Abdoulaye Bakayoko, Sada Thioub and Adil Aouchiche for Stefan Bajic, Aïmen Moueffek, Jean-Philippe Krasso and Arnaud Nordin as Saint-Etienne changed to a 3-4-3 shape to match Lens.
Saint-Etienne’s gameplan revolved around trying to pull forward Lens’ midfielders. Lens’ attacking trio would push forward to press the back three, but Mahdi Camara and Zaydou Youssouf generally stayed quite deep behind them. Either positioned between Lens’ forwards to receive a pass or the centre-backs able to bounce a pass to them via the wing-backs before Przemyslaw Frankowski and Jonathan Clauss could get close to them, Saint-Etienne were generally able to work the ball into midfield.
This meant Seko Fofana and Cheick Doucouré would have to push very high up the pitch if Lens were going to stop Saint-Etienne playing out, but this created problems of its own, as Ryad Boudebouz would drop off into midfield and Aouchiche would tuck inside. If Fofana and Doucouré pushed forward, they left space behind them for Boudebouz and Aouchiche, but if they didn’t then Camara and Youssouf were left free to pick up the ball in midfield.
Saint-Etienne also tried to press Lens high up the pitch man-to-man. This worked to a certain extent, forcing Lens long on several occasions.
Lens possessed the comfort on the ball to play around them though. Cheick Doucouré and Facundo Medina were particularly impressive – the former turning out and playing forward in tight spaces and the latter playing one-twos and pushing forward or inside on the ball to open up space and progress the ball.
Using the same shape, Saint-Etienne faced the same issue as what they were trying to exploit in Lens: Camara and Youssouf would push forward to stop Fofana and Doucouré getting the ball in midfield, but this left space behind them for Gaël Kakuta. Saint-Etienne’s centre-backs would step up quickly as Kakuta received the ball to limit the available space, yet Kakuta would flick the ball around them before they could get tight to him.
It was Saint-Etienne that opened the scoring shortly before half-time. Lens had men forward for a corner but a heavy touch and then attempt to avoid a collision by Clauss gave Camara the opportunity to step in and claim the ball. He immediately sprinted forward to collect it and put Saint-Etienne on the attack, with four teammates joining him. Saint-Etienne simply caught out Lens on the counter, overloading their backline. Aouchiche crossed to Boudebouz at the back post for a beautiful volley, and Jean-Louis Leca’s attempt at stopping it was poor, palming it down and into his own net.
With a precious lead to protect, Saint-Etienne sat back in a 5-4-1 to protect it, handing control to Lens.
Lens reacted positively though. They played with greater aggression, moving the ball around at a higher tempo, while Kakuta dropped deeper or pulled wide more often to get more involved in the game.
Haise made a series of attacking changes to get back into the game. First, he brought on Florian Sotoca and Corentin Jean for Saïd and Frankowski, then switched to a 4-2-3-1 by introducing Patrick Berg and David Costa for Kevin Danso and Kakuta.
Lens equalised from a corner. Sotoca raced to the near post to flick the ball in off the underside of the crossbar, catching Bernardoni unprepared as he had positioned himself off his line seemingly expecting a deeper cross.
Deep into injury time, Fofana got the winner. Leca easily saved a Boudebouz header then rolled the ball out and Saint-Etienne half-heartedly pressed, pushing men forward but without putting any actual pressure on the ball. Lens took full advantage, particularly Fofana who immediately ran forward into the space Saint-Etienne had left. Doucouré carried the ball then spread it wide to Costa, who slipped it in behind for Fofana. The Ivorian cut inside onto his right and fired a shot inside the far post.
This was a much better, more spirited performance than you would expect from a team rooted to the bottom of the division, but that Saint-Etienne emerged with no points was itself a damning indictment of their situation.
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