With wins over Lille and Quevilly-Rouen respectively in the last round, Lens and Monaco would play off for a place in the quarter-finals.
Franck Haise opted to make just one change from the side that lost to Marseille last week, swapping out goalkeeper Wuilker Fariñez for Jean-Louis Leca. Lens continued with the 3-4-3 formation they have often adopted this season.
Philippe Clement made three changes to the team that lost to Montpellier, replacing Alexander Nübel, Guillermo Maripan and Eliot Matazo with Vito Mannone, Chrislain Matsima and Kevin Volland. Monaco set up in a 4-1-4-1 shape.
As a general rule of thumb, Monaco didn’t engage Lens high up the pitch, but they also didn’t drop off into a defensive shape. Jean Lucas and Volland would stick to Seko Fofana and Cheick Doucouré, yet Sofiane Diop and Gelson Martins would stay in line with the midfielders rather than marking Jonathan Gradit and Facundo Medina, only stepping up to press them when they received the ball. This meant Lens’ centre-backs had time on the ball to pick out passes, while there was also space between the lines for Wesley Saïd or Gaël Kakuta to receive the ball, as Aurélien Tchouaméni was left alone to cover all this gap with Lucas and Volland pulled forward.
Despite this, Lens still struggled to play through as Monaco’s defenders would snap out of the backline to ensure Saïd and Kakuta had no time to turn on the ball and play forward.
It made for an awkward start to the game, as the ball kept bouncing from one team to the other, with neither side able to keep possession.
Monaco managed to take the lead though, catching out Lens on the counter-attack. Lens were on the attack but Matsima stepped in to intercept a pass and knocked the ball wide to Diop, with Jonathan Clauss caught way ahead of the ball in attack. Doucouré moved across to cover, but Caio Henrique stormed forward on the overlap with Clauss trailing. Diop cut inside before laying it off to Caio to give the Brazilian the space to take a touch, get his head up and cross. With Kevin Danso caught under the ball and Medina not great in the air, Wissam Ben Yedder got his head to the ball to finish.
They then doubled their lead less than ten minutes later, again on the counter. Caio intercepted the ball and pumped it forward to Ben Yedder, who in turn took a touch and pumped it in behind himself for Martins. Lens looked to be in a solid position, with three defenders back against Monaco’s two attackers, however Medina, dragged across to the right, was trying to show Martins down the line, making it easier for the Portuguese to cut inside onto his stronger right foot. As he did that, Lucas stormed forward, untracked, from deep. Martins cut inside and laid the ball off to Lucas as he attacked the gap between Przemyslaw Frankowski, finishing past Leca at the near post.
The same thing happened again two minutes later. Monaco recovered the ball from a Lens attack and Ruben Aguilar knocked it over the top of Frankowski to Martins, who touched it down for Lucas before Medina could get to him. Lucas simply burst forward through the gap between Medina and Danso, playing a one-two with Ben Yedder, then spreading the ball out to Diop to finish at the back post.
Barely anything had really happened in the game but a little sloppiness had suddenly left Lens three goals down.
In desperate need of goals, Kakuta started to drop deeper to get on the ball and make things happen for Lens, helping them to get the ball into attack.
Lens pulled one back just before half-time. Again Lens’ centre-backs were left with time on the ball and space between the lines to play into, with Clauss this time tucking inside to receive the ball. He pushed forward on the ball and squared it to Kakuta, who let fly from distance. Mannone saved the shot, but Saïd was first to the loose ball, only for Mannone to save it again, only for it to fall to Saïd again to finally finish.
Early in the second half, Lens pulled another back – this time catching out Monaco on the counter themselves. Kakuta stepped in to rob Martins of the ball in Lens’ half, then quickly offloaded the ball to Fofana, who hit the ball long for substitute Arnaud Kalimuendo. The 20 year-old simply controlled the ball, ran at Caio, then cut inside and fired a perfectly-placed shot inside the post with his weaker left foot.
Haise made attacking changes, bringing on David Costa, Ibrahima Balde and Corentin Jean and switching to a back four with the introduction of Patrick Berg, but it was Monaco that got the final goal to seal their victory, snatching back the ball in Lens’ half and breaking quickly to set up Ben Yedder for his second.
It was a disappointing showing by Lens, gifting Monaco an insurmountable lead without even making them work for it. Despite the goals, there wasn’t really much to the game, as they mainly came from each side catching the other out on the counter.
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