Lyon were one of the first teams to really outplay Lens this season when they met in October, using their wingers to stretch play and discourage Lens’ wing-backs from pushing forward.
Peter Bosz made just one change to the team that beat Nice, swapping out Moussa Dembélé for Tino Kadewere in attack. Lyon continued with their usual 4-2-3-1 shape.
Franck Haise kept with the same eleven that beat Bordeaux but Lens moved away from their usual 3-4-1-2 formation, setting up in a 3-5-1-1. Florian Sotoca was moved back into midfield just as he had been against Lyon earlier in the season, although he would push up into attack when Lens had the ball or to join the press.
The strong wind – blowing away from the camera in the clips – had a significant influence on the match. The ball would bobble and spin, meaning players would either take poor touches as the path of the ball was interrupted or would waste time looking down at their feet, slowing the tempo. The wind would be at its strongest either side of half-time, which coincided with the period where the match essentially died off.
Both teams took advantage of the difficulty in passing to press high. Dembélé and Lyon’s wingers would push up onto the centre-backs, with Karl Toko Ekambi and Romain Faivre curving their runs to block the passes out to the wing-backs, while Lucas Paqueta would stay tight to Cheick Doucouré.
This was usually enough to convince Wuilker Fariñez into kicking long, where the ball would again get caught and carried off its path by the wind. The goalkeeper initially tried to pick out aerial passes towards the wide areas, but seeing that the wind would alter the course of the ball, he instead started pumping it through the middle, where Seko Fofana and Sotoca would push forward to join the attack. Even if Fariñez couldn’t pick out a precise target, he could at least send it towards the attack, where Lens had plenty of players to crowd wherever the ball ended up.
One of these long balls was how Lens took the lead. Castello Lukeba won the header, but Sotoca was first to the loose ball, feeding it to Gaël Kakuta, who slid a through ball in behind for Arnaud Kalimuendo. Anthony Lopes saved Kalimuendo’s shot, but the rebound fell to Jonathan Clauss to finish into an empty net.
They appeared to have doubled their lead soon after from basically the same situation only for it to be ruled out for handball after Thiago Mendes’ failed clearance cannoned off of Fofana’s arm.
Likewise Lens were pressing Lyon high. In their first meeting of the season, Lyon had discouraged Lens’ wing-backs from pressing by having their wingers hug the touchline, but this strategy was gone this time around. Previously Lens’ centre-backs had been unable to take over the marking of the wingers without leaving the backline stretched, but because they were much more narrow here, Facundo Medina and Christopher Wooh could take over responsibility for dealing with them while remaining in their central positions. This meant Massadio Haïdara and Clauss could push forward to press without having to worry about leaving a stretched backline behind them, and so Lens were able to pressure Lyon effectively, forcing them into giving the ball away or into long balls whose precision would be lost in the wind.
Lyon looked at their best when they simply took advantage of their players’ excellent close control, quickly squirming through Lens’ midfield.
Lens started to sit off toward the end of the half though, aiming to protect their lead.
Lyon equalised just before half-time though. Paqueta dropped very deep and hit a ball forward for Kadewere, although Kevin Danso headed it away. Toko Ekambi picked up the loose ball though and dropped a lovely cross in at the far post, where Kadewere had peeled off to get to it before Wooh could get back into position.
The mounting wind saw an increase in turnovers and, with both teams starting to sit back more, neither side really created much in the second half, earning each side a point.
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