The post-Derby du Nord hangover has been a difficult one for Lens: after beating Lille, they faced two home games behind closed doors due to the crowd trouble, with the first ending in a loss to Strasbourg despite dominating, thanks largely to poor refereeing.
Marseille have had a rough time of it recently too, with their match against Nice abandoned due to confrontations between Nice supporters and security and Marseille players and staff, then clashes between supporters at the end of their draw with Angers.
Jorge Sampaoli made six changes after that 0-0 draw against Angers, bringing in William Saliba, Luan Peres, Pape Gueye, Mattéo Guendouzi, Dimitri Payet and Cengiz Ünder for Jordan Amavi, Duje Caleta-Car, Amine Harit, Boubacar Kamara, Pol Lirola and Luis Henrique. Marseille set up in a lopsided 3-4-3 formation.
Frank Haise also made five changes after their loss to Strasbourg: Christopher Wooh, Deiver Machado, David Costa, Florian Sotoca and Arnaud Kalimuendo all came in, replacing Jonathan Clauss, Gaël Kakuta, Ignatius Ganago, Wesley Saïd and the suspended Kevin Danso. Lens continued in a 3-4-3 shape, with Costa and Sotoca flanking Kalimuendo, rather than returning to their usual 3-4-1-2.
Marseille’s narrow shape made it quite simple for Lens to press them. Their front three would step up to press Marseille’s back three, while Seko Fofana and Cheick Doucouré got tight to Marseille’s midfielders behind them. Valentin Rongier or Guendouzi would sometimes pull wide on the right, requiring Machado to push forward to meet them, but Bamba Dieng and Gerson would stay forward on the left, too far for the centre-backs to realistically pass to them. Instead it was usually Payet who would drop deep on the left, far from his nominal central attacking position.
Within just four minutes, Lens managed to pin back Marseille and win the ball in their box, getting a penalty thanks to referees no longer taking intent into the equation for handballs. After a long wait, Sotoca tucked away the resulting spot kick.
After taking the lead, Lens were more comfortable sitting back and blocking passes into midfield. With little width deep, Marseille had problems playing out, as Lens’ front three could comfortably stay in the centre and stop passes from getting through.
Half-way through the half, Lens doubled their lead. Pressing high at a free-kick, Marseille left just three men at the back against Przemyslaw Frankowski, Kalimuendo and Sotoca, so Jean-Louis Leca pumped the ball long over the top. Sotoca won the aerial duel against Peres, flicking it on to Frankowski, who had space to run at Marseile’s backline, cut inside onto his left foot and curl a shot into the far corner.
Marseille pulled one back soon after from a free-kick though, with Payet giving Leca no chance.
In first half injury time, they then equalised through a penalty, after Wooh went to ground trying to tackle Dieng – there wasn’t much if any contact, but he also missed the ball and was blocking off Dieng’s attempts to advance.
Marseille were managing to now get into the final third thanks to Lens dropping further and further back, finding an open angle to feed the ball straight out to the wingers, while, in the second half, they had the time on the ball to pick out Payet between the lines.
Despite Marseille growing into the game, it was Lens that got the winner. Haise brought out the big guns in search of goal, bringing on Kakuta, Clauss and Saïd for Costa, Machado and Kalimuendo. Clauss received the ball down the right, drawing Luan Peres out, so Sotoca made a diagonal run out to the right flank behind him, pulling Leonardo Balerdi out to the touchline. Clauss knocked the ball down to Sotoca then sprinted past Luan Peres to receive it back again as he made a run through the centre. Balerdi turned and came back inside to stop Clauss, so he just knocked it back out to the flank where Sotoca was now free to pick out a cross, with Saïd timing his run perfectly to meet the ball ahead of Saliba and head it home.
Lens were able to hold out to collect their three points, leapfrogging the home side to go second.
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