Another Derby du Nord kicked off the new year for Lens and Lille.
Lens won the first during their good start to the season, but went into the winter break in terrible form, their sole win since the international break coming against fifth division Stade Poitevin in the previous round of the Coupe de France. Franck Haise made four changes to the team that lost to Nice before Christmas, replacing Jean-Louis Leca, Jonathan Gradit, Massadio Haïdara and Yannick Cahuzac with Wuilker Fariñez, Kevin Danso, Facundo Medina and Florian Sotoca, reverting to their usual 3-4-1-2 formation.
Jocelyn Gourvennec made three changes to the side that beat Bordeaux, swapping out Burak Yilmaz, Jonathan David and Benjamin André for Yusuf Yazici, Gabriel Gudmundsson and Amadou Onana in Lille’s 4-4-2 shape.
Lens had the better of the early period of the match. Lille attempted to press them but struggled to find a way to cover all of Lens’ back three. The two forwards were outnumbered and so usually one of the wingers would step up to support them, however this would leave space behind them in the midfield for Lens to take advantage of.
Most of the time Lens could simply play forward down the flanks unopposed though. Lille set up in their narrow 4-4-2 defensively, so Lens could spread the ball out to the wing-backs hugging the touchline, immediately bypassing Lille’s forward and midfield lines. With Przemyslaw Frankowski and Jonathan Clauss taking up high positions on the flanks, they had usually already moved past Angel Gomes and Gudmundsson when they received the ball, leaving it to Tiago Djalo and Reinildo Mandava to move out to close them down. Pulling out the full-backs, Lens were quite easily able to stretch Lille’s backline, with Arnaud Kalimuendo, David Costa, Sotoca and Seko Fofana all attacking through the centre or making runs in behind the full-back to occupy and drag away the other Lille defenders. They threatened through this several times but couldn’t quite pull off the final move to create a goal.
In possession Lille were trying to utilise a back three themselves, with Djalo staying back in line with Jose Fonte and Sven Botman. Lens were better equipped to deal with this though. With Costa pushing up to join Kalimuendo and Sotoca, they weren’t left outnumbered when pressing Lille’s makeshift back three though. Fonte could sometimes be left free when Costa dropped back into midfield to pick up Renato Sanches but even when he received the ball here, he had limited passing options: Botman and Djalo to his sides were both marked by Lens’ strikers while Sanches would be watched by Costa in midfield, meaning Fonte was free but essentially still left surrounded on all sides.
Lille could find joy in attack though. With Yazici dropping off and Onana pushing forward, they were either able to find space or, if Cheick Docuouré and Fofana picked them up, occupy Lens’ midfielders, pulling them apart to open up a pass into striker Jonathan Bamba.
Albeit against the run of play, it was Lille that took the lead. They did so by deserting the makeshift back three idea and pushing Djalo forward into attack. The ball was spread out to Gomes on the right but Djalo sprinted past him on the overlap, doubling up on Frankowski. Gomes ran at Frankowski to keep him occupied then spread the ball out to Djalo to cross from the byline. Danso got his head on the ball but only managed to deflect it to Onana at the back post, who headed it back across goal into the net.
Lille then doubled their lead minutes later. Even with Costa keeping tabs on him, Sanches managed to pick up the ball deep in midfield, turn out and carry the ball forward, breaking Lens’ press. This caught Lens at a particularly bad time. With Bamba dropping into midfield, Doucouré was occupied blocking the pass into him, forcing Christopher Wooh into stepping up into midfield to pick up Gudmundsson, while Clauss was pulled forward to press Mandava. Lens’ backline was therefore left stretched as Sanches strode forward and passed the ball out to Yazici down the left. Danso was pulled wide to deal with him as Bamba sprinted through the middle, only for Yazici to pass inside to Bamba before Danso could get close to him, with Bamba laying off the ball to Gudmundsson making a run into the space behind Danso ahead of Wooh. Medina, initially following Bamba, was pulled across to stop Gudmundsson, only for the Swede to squeeze a return pass through to Bamba. Frankowski was now left alone against three men: Bamba, his man Gomes, and Onana making a supporting run from midfield. He held his ground as best he could but Bamba offloaded the ball to Onana just as he reached the box, taking a touch before finishing past Fariñez.
Lens may have had the better of the first half, but it wasn’t simply luck for Lille. They had exploited the weaknesses in Lens’ system much more ruthlessly than Lens had, doubling up on their wing-backs for the first, then outnumbering their midfielders to force out a defender for the second.
Lens reacted by becoming more aggressive. They pressed with greater intensity, moved the ball quicker and had their centre-backs push up into Lille’s half in possession. It was a risk but one they had to take given they needed two goals.
Lille’s response was to try to slow the game down, keeping men back and slowly passing the ball around in unthreatening areas.
Lens pulled one back on the counter. Lille had plenty of opportunity to get back into position with the ball going out for a throw-in following an attack but failed to do so, lazily trotting back, leaving the back four with just Bamba and then belatedly Sanches for protection as Lens attacked. Fonte stepped up into midfield to cover a little but this ended up simply leaving a gap in the backline for substitute Wesley Saïd to slide the ball through to Kalimuendo in the box. Kalimuendo dragged Botman away from his position before returning the ball to Saïd, who fed the ball to Fofana making an untracked run into the gap Botman had left, the Ivorian quickly poking the ball into the net. It was a disgracefully lazy showing from Lille’s attackers that left their defenders overworked and they were rightly punished.
Haise had already brought on three attackers: Gaël Kakuta, Corentin Jean and Saïd for Costa, Frankowski and Sotoca, then minutes after pulling a goal back he introduced new signing Patrick Berg for Danso. This saw Lens switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation, with forward Jean at left-back and Fofana pushing forward to join Kakuta and Saïd in the attacking midfield band. Lens were essentially using a six man attack, with Jean and Clauss providing the width on the overlap, enabling them to overload Lille’s backline.
Gourvennec aimed to shore up his side by replacing the likes of Gomes with usual right-back Jérémy Pied, before switching to a back five in injury time by withdrawing Yazici for Kouadio-Yves Dabila.
This came so close to seeing Lille through to the next round, only for Fofana to get an equaliser at the last gasp. A corner rolled through to the other side where Fofana picked up the ball, beat Mandava and Isaac Lihadji, then struck a low shot through the crowded box to bounce in off the far post.
It was enough to take the two sides through to a penalty shoot-out. The pattern of the match played into the hands of Lens: their eleven was full to the brim with attacking players, whereas Lille had removed most of theirs to defend their lead. Fonte missed one then Fariñez, who consistently went in the right direction, saved Sanches’, seeing Lens into the next round.
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