Having won just twice in the league since returning from the winter break, Angers weren’t in the best form to be hosting Lens at the Stade Raymond Kopa – named after the Angers legend who was born and raised just 15 minutes away from Lens in Noeux-les-Mines.
Stéphane Moulin set up his team in a 4-2-3-1 formation, making three changes from the team that could only muster a goalless draw against Strasbourg. Souleyman Doumbia replaced Vincent Manceau at left-back, and Sofiane Boufal and Pierrick Capelle were brought into the midfield in place of Ibrahim Amadou and Sada Thioub.
Franck Haise made just two changes to the team that beat Dijon, bringing Facundo Medina and Simon Banza back into the starting eleven in place of Steven Fortes and Arnaud Kalimuendo. They set up in their usual 3-4-1-2 shape.
Despite scoring just one goal in their last four matches, Angers went 2-0 up within ten minutes.
The first goal came from Doumbia cutting out a cross-field pass from Medina. Jonathan Clauss got to the loose ball and hit it up into the air, but it was going backwards and dropped into Lens’ half. Loïc Badé and Medina both ran back yet it was Loïs Diony who got to the ball first and finished.
With the benefit of hindsight, it would have made more sense for Medina to collect the ball rather than leaving it to Badé, as the ball was bouncing away from Badé towards the Argentinian, falling perfectly into the path of Diony, however Badé is typically fast enough to deal with balls in behind and the angle of the ball wasn’t easily evident when Medina left it to him. It was a goal that looked more calamitous than it really was.
The second came from a penalty, given after Gaël Kakuta tripped Boufal following a corner. Kakuta did little wrong: he slowed rather than charging into the challenge, but slipped on the hybrid grass and clipped Boufal as the winger advanced past him.
With a solid lead already, Angers set out to protect it in a mid-block 4-4-1-1 or 4-4-2. Either Diony would push up onto the centre-backs while Angelo Fulgini stayed near Cheick Doucouré, or both both of them would drop off to block the pass into midfield. This shape did little to stop Lens advancing, as they could easily play around the front two by having their centre-backs split wide, but it did form a compact block in Angers’ half.
If anything Angers’ position was made harder by taking such an early lead though. Rather than an early feeling out process, Lens were forced into pushing hard for goals after just ten minutes, meaning Angers were stuck trying to hold out in their own half for 80 minutes, save for the odd counter-attack.
It didn’t take long for Lens to pull a goal back. Jonathan Gradit advanced down the right and, with Doumbia moving wide expecting a pass into Clauss’ feet, the centre-back slid a through ball behind him. Clauss timed his run to perfection, sprinting in behind to collect the ball as Doumbia was caught needing to turn, and finished past Paul Bernardoni from a tight angle.
Lens continually put Angers under pressure, mounting as the game went on. They zipped the ball from flank to flank with speed on their passes, while they also found room through the centre – helped by Lassana Coulibaly or Thomas Mangani often stepping up in support of Fulgini for Angers, resembling a 4-3-2-1 which left space in midfield.
It took until injury time but Lens finally broke through, as substitute Kalimuendo headed home a cross. Lens had flooded forward, outnumbering Angers’ backline six-to-four. This gave substitute Clément Michelin the space out wide to take a touch and whip in a cross, while Ismaël Traoré left Kalimuendo – first to step out and stop a pass into Tony Mauricio, then to pick up Florian Sotoca. He could be seen motioning to Abdoulaye Bamba but the right-back stuck with Seko Fofana rather than tucking in, perhaps misinterpreting Traoré’s instructions as him wanting Bamba to maintain the defensive line given the way the full-back stepped forward with him. Either way, Kalimuendo was left completely unmarked and he took full advantage to finish with a diving header.
It was another display of the impressive mentality of Lens’ players. They were rather unfortunate to find themselves two goals down so early on, yet there was little sulking, they simply picked up the pace, got to work and eventually won themselves a point.
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