Having claimed victories over both the reigning Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 champions in their last two matches, it’s fair to say that Lens’ return to the top of French football is looking solid enough so far.
Franck Haise set up his team in their usual 3-4-1-2 formation, bringing Ignatius Ganago and Issiaga Sylla back into the side and giving a start to Steven Fortes in place of suspended Loïc Badé.
Jean-Louis Gasset made one change to the team that drew with Lyon, swapping Samuel Kalu for Jimmy Briand, but completely changed the shape, switching from a 4-2-3-1 to match Lens’ 3-4-1-2.
Loris Benito summed up Bordeaux’s performance post-match: “I think that we were worse than them in all aspects of the game. We were rubbish physically, technically, tactically, mentally. We can’t be surprised if we don’t win the match. In football, there are the defeats you can’t explain, this one we can. If you are so rubbish, I don’t see how you can win the match. It was absolutely zero.”
Although harsh – it’s not like they were thrashed – Benito had a point. Lens’ forwards would push up to cut out the short pass to the centre-backs, their midfielders would get tight to Bordeaux’s and Lens’ wing-backs could easily get close to their opposite number, who often positioned themselves high up the pitch, meaning Lens’ weren’t dragged far from their backline.
With all the short options watched closely, Bordeaux mainly just hit the ball long and Lens would immediately reclaim the ball.
Even when they attempted slower passing moves, they would inevitably end with a terrible pass or touch that handed the ball back to Lens far too easily.
Bordeaux tried to defend in much the same way as Lens, however they pressed with much less intensity. This left their players neither in a position to pressure the man on the ball or to stop the recipient from picking it up, allowing Lens to cut straight through them with passes.
Gaël Kakuta and Florian Sotoca were constantly receiving the ball to feet in Bordeaux’s half and spreading the ball wide to the wing-backs, particularly Sylla on the left, to whip in crosses. Lens’ attackers would all flood the box, while Cheick Doucouré got forward to join them. The crosses were never great though and Bordeaux’s switch to a back five gave them an extra man to repel them.
Lens looked at their most dangerous when Kakuta had the ball, twice managing to play in Ganago only for the Cameroonian to spurn the opportunities.
Ganago didn’t waste his chance to open the scoring at the start of the second half though. Rémi Oudin’s pass back to goalkeeper Benoît Costil was far too soft and Ganago sprinted to get to it first, touching it past Costil and finishing into the open net.
Lens doubled their lead through a penalty twelve minutes later after substitute Yacine Adli gave the ball away on the edge of the area and Paul Baysse bundled over Ganago trying to defend the resulting cross.
As Baysse was sent off, Gasset took off Briand for Pablo and changed to a 4-4-1.
Two goals up against ten men, Lens were happier to ease off and keep the ball rather than wasting energy running up the score, eventually shifting to a 3-5-2 to shore up the midfield.
Bordeaux pulled one back in injury time from a free-kick but there was no time to mount a comeback as Lens emerged deserving winners.
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