With Lille having beaten Paris Saint-Germain earlier in the evening, allowing them to pull away at the top of Ligue 1, Olympique Lyonnais needed a win if they were going to avoid falling behind in the title race.
Rudi Garcia made two changes to the team that lost to PSG a few weeks ago, swapping out Mattia De Sciglio and Maxence Caqueret for Léo Dubois and Bruno Guimaraes, but keeping with their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Likewise, Franck Haise made two changes to the side that beat Strasbourg, replacing Facundo Medina and Simon Banza with Steven Fortes and Florian Sotoca. This meant keeping with the 3-5-1-1 shape rather than returning to their usual 3-4-1-2.
Given the way Memphis Depay had caused so many problems in the first meeting between these teams, dropping off into midfield between Cheick Doucouré and Seko Fofana, Haise’s decision to bolster the midfield made excellent sense. As a general rule of thumb, Gaël Kakuta and Sotoca would block passes into Thiago Mendes, Yannick Cahuzac and Fofana would pick up Guimaraes and Lucas Paqueta, and Doucouré would sit behind them in the space Depay looked to drop into. It wasn’t a straight man-marking set-up – for example, if Sotoca and Kakuta were pulled forward for whatever reason, Fofana might step up onto Mendes, with Doucouré picking up Paqueta in his stead – however Lens would have four or five players in that midfield area dealing with the four Lyon men.
The quality on the ball and fluidity of Lyon’s midfielders meant they were still able to progress the ball, however they weren’t cutting through Lens as they had in their first meeting.
As well as Doucouré patrolling that space in front of the defence, Depay was watched closely by Loïc Badé. The young centre-back did an excellent job following the Dutchman and ensuring he couldn’t turn on the ball. Before long, Depay began to switch positions with Karl Toko Ekambi to pick up the ball away from Badé.
Kakuta and Sotoca dropping off to block the passes into Mendes meant Lens weren’t pressing as much as they usually do. On one of the few occasions they did pressure Lyon high up the pitch, they scored, with Doucouré picking out yet another glorious shot from the edge of the area only to see it ruled out due to nonsense handball rules – Sotoca did everything he could do to pull his arm out of the way of the shot, but it glanced off his elbow and so, under the letter of the law, had to be ruled out despite being in no way intentional.
While the disallowed goal showed them the potential of what they were missing by dropping off, Lens were still able to burst forward quickly and create chances. Lyon’s front three would press Lens’ back three, but, as usual, they were comfortable enough on the ball to play around this pressure.
This meant that Jonathan Clauss and Massadio Haïdara were able to bomb forward down the flanks to receive the ball in wide areas, while both Fofana and Cahuzac would each push forward to support the attack. Lens were getting five men running at Lyon’s back four, leaving them stretched and outnumbered.
Lens took the lead from a similar situation. Due to the director opting to play a series of replays while the ball was in play, it’s difficult to tell what exactly the attack stems from, but it appears to be Lens winning the second ball from a long ball forward. Kakuta received the ball wide right and cut inside to slide a pass through the centre, as Sotoca made a run in behind Maxwel Cornet, who was pulled out to defend against Kakuta, drawing the attention of Jason Denayer. While Denayer looked to cover Cornet, Marcelo did nothing as Clauss ran straight through the middle to pick up the ball and finish. With Marcelo glancing over his shoulder at Fofana as Kakuta cuts inside, you could argue he’s been caught out by Lens outnumbering the backline – he and Dubois picking up Fofana and Haïdara – however they are so far away that really it’s more a simple case of ball-watching, with Marcelo failing to realise he should be picking up Clauss’ run.
Although Lyon were having nowhere near the joy they had at home, they were still able to create some good chances. With three forwards against three centre-backs, they would take it in turns dropping off, pulling one of the Lens centre-backs out to open up space for the others to attack.
Chasing the game, Garcia made attacking changes. He brought on attacker Islam Slimani for holding midfielder Mendes, switching to a 4-4-2, then replaced Tino Kadewere with Rayan Cherki.
Their equaliser came more from the individual quality of their players than any strategic change though. Paqueta’s dribbling drew in Lens’ midfielders, enabling him to squeeze it through to Cherki between the lines. Lens remained compact though, leaving little space for the teenager, whose shot was blocked by Haïdara. The Malian’s block ricocheted back off of Badé though, bouncing to Paqueta to spin and rifle home on the volley.
It wasn’t a great game from Lyon, who fell out of the top three for the first time since December, now falling behind Monaco as well as Lille and PSG in the title race. It was a good match for Lens though, who can feel hard done by not to come away with three points against one of the title challengers. Still yet to play Monaco, Lille and PSG, les Sang et Or will have a big say in where the title ends up.
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