The French submission to this weekend of derbies was the Derby du Nord between Lens and Lille. Coronavirus restrictions ensured it wouldn’t be as jumping as you would expect for the first meeting between the clubs in five years, although Lens supporters did a good job of seeing off the team.
Christophe Galtier kept with the same team that saw off Strasbourg in a 4-4-2 shape.
Franck Haise was forced into two changes to the team that beat Saint-Etienne due to the injury to Ignatius Ganago and suspension of Facundo Medina, giving chances to Corentin Jean and Aleksandar Radovanovic in Lens’ usual 3-4-1-2.
The first half was close, although Lille still had the better of play. They sat off in a narrow mid-block, blocking up the middle to encourage Lens into playing wide.
Upon passes wide or backward passes towards the centre-backs, Lille would begin pressing. This was most effective when the two forwards were able to cover the back three, one pressuring the wide centre-back nearest the ball and the other picking up Loïc Badé in the centre. This left the winger able to push out towards the wing-back nearest the ball, while the rest of the midfield would move across to cover, the opposite winger picking up a Lens centre midfielder.
Lens found themselves unable to pass out under this pressure, however the narrowness of Lille did leave them open on the opposite flank. If Lens could switch play, the opposite winger would usually be forced into pressing the outside centre-back as the strikers had been dragged across to the opposite side. In turn this meant the full-back would be forced into stepping out to pick up the wing-back, leaving the Lille defence three-against-three, with the mobile trio of Gaël Kakuta, Florian Sotoca and Jean all looking to stretch the remaining defenders.
Lens never found themselves able to turn this into anything useful though and were mostly left resorting to long balls to avoid Lille’s pressure. The possibility of those three-against-three attacks were also lost as Kakuta began to drop deeper and deeper in search of the ball to help Lens progress up the pitch, leaving Lille with a spare man against Sotoca and Jean.
Lille found success by controlling the centre of the pitch. One of Jonathan Bamba or Luiz Araujo would tuck into the midfield while the other pushed forward into attack, pushing three attackers forward to occupy Lens’ centre-backs. Jonathan David and Burak Yilmaz would both sometimes drop off too while right-back Mehmet Zeki Celik also tucked inside, ensuring that Lens were outnumbered in midfield so that Lille could work the ball through.
There was also a simple gap in quality between the two sides. Lens would press Lille but the likes of Renato Sanches and Bamba could evade this pressure, whereas promising Lens breakaways would be ruined by a wayward pass.
Only one goal separated the sides at half-time – Yilmaz finishing off a neatly-worked free-kick – but the second half started as it meant to go on.
Just two minutes into the half, Bamba doubled Lille’s lead. The ball had rolled over Radovanovic’s foot towards Bamba, who had doubled up on Badé with David, and Gradit followed Yilmaz’s run. Left with two men to mark, Badé ultimately made the wrong choice in choosing to follow David and, with Gradit going walkies, Bamba was left with enough time to take a touch before picking his spot.
Soon after Gradit found himself sent off. His aggression in trying to step in to intercept passes can be useful but it proved a disaster in this match: it was he who gave away the free-kick that led to Lille’s opener, then he was twice yellow-carded for fouling his man while trying to nip in ahead of him. He could hardly claim he wasn’t warned.
Haise responded by changing to a 4-3-2, taking off Yannick Cahuzac for Tony Mauricio. Kakuta had finally got involved in the game by dropping deeper, so this didn’t change his role too much but Lens were taking a risk by putting two attacking midfielders in their central slots. The chances of victory were very slim but Haise was at least using what little options he had.
It backfired though. Lille dragged Lens over to the left then switched play to the right before cutting straight through the middle of Lens to get substitute Jonathan Ikoné a goal. This can’t really be blamed on Lens trialling Mauricio and Kakuta as central midfielders – it was more to do with the way Lille were stretching them – but Lens didn’t put up much of a fight as Lille waltzed through the middle of them.
Another red card – this time for substitute Clément Michelin minutes after coming on – saw Lens move to a 4-3-1 and Lille once again cut straight through them to get a goal for Yusuf Yazici, with Sotoca understandably looking like a fish out of water at right-back. Mercifully, they left it at that.
Although the way they wilted was an embarrassment, it would be easy for Lens to simply write this off as one disastrous half. They probably shouldn’t though: their formation provides them with great defensive width but it also leaves them light in midfield and Lille exploited this perfectly. It was a tight performance by the new league leaders but they may have just laid out the blueprints to beating Lens if the away side aren’t careful.
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