It was in pouring rain that the 32nd final of the Coupe de France between RC Lens and PSG began. Nothing abnormal in the north, and nothing abnormal either in the team compositions put in place by Will Still, with the 3-5-2 pattern, and Luis Enrique, who had designated Ousmane Dembélé as false 9 , with more than limited turnover. Building on its latest successes, the Ile-de-France club started the match displaying total control of the ball and the tempo. But that was not enough to destabilize a Lensoise team that was particularly grouped together, in a low block. We even had to wait for a handball error from Koffi in the 17th minute to get the first thrill, but the Sang-et-Or defense escaped without damage.
PSG multiplied the conservation sequences applied, with three-way movement, triangle play, but faced with such a compact defense, the strict application of the game plan is not always enough. The match finally came alive in the 25th minute, with a goal from Hakimi, on a cross from Désiré Doué. Without VAR, we had to rely on the linesman’s choice to raise the flag for offside. Almost immediately, it was Frankowski who finally made Bollaert vibrate with a beautiful cross shot which did not go far from Safonov’s right post. But Lens failed to develop the game, condemned by insufficient technical quality. Marquinhos hit the bar, following a corner, after a good recovery, slightly diverted by Koffi (39th), then it was Thomasson, in the other direction, who wasted a great opportunity by shooting at Safonov (43rd). The match got a little wild, but was far from reaching crazy intensity.
An unbridled second period
Returning from the locker room, Lens left with much better offensive intentions, suddenly putting more pressure on the Parisian camp. We then found Sang-et-Or more in line with their usual values. Dembélé retained his bad habit, that of harvesting in front of the goal, wasting a superb ball from Vitinha in the bell (51st). Fulgini in turn threatened Safonov (54th) and the match finally gained momentum. Safonov played with fire by hitting Frankowski on an aerial exit (56th) which left the possibility for Machado to find the crossbar. The penalty could have been whistled. And Fulgini could have scored, after another shooting opportunity (61st).
So Luis Enrique played coaching, but he had an immediate contrary effect since on the corner following the entries of Barcola and Ramos, Khusanov, followed by PSG in view of the winter transfer window, took advantage of a poorly cleared ball to turn on Safonov and open the mark (1-0, 66th). But this PSG has character and 4 minutes after opening the score, Gonçalo Ramos took advantage of an error from Danso to show off his scoring flair and put his team back on level terms (1-1, 70th). The tension increased a notch, and the contacts hardened with the image of an XXL shoulder blow from Khusanov on Ramos, the two scorers. Dembélé alerted Koffi (87th), who only needed him to put himself in danger, like a completely missed restart in Sanso’s face. The score no longer moved and it was therefore necessary to go through the penalty shootout to find out who qualified for the round of 16. And in this little game, it was PSG who won, 4 tabs to 3, thanks to two saves from Safonov! The Ile-de-France club will find Espaly, a National 3 club, in 16th.
