Stade Bollaert did not miss the opportunity to celebrate RC Lens’ qualification for the Champions League, secured on Friday evening following a narrow victory against FC Nantes (1-0). Mezian Mesloub, son of Walid and barely 16 years old, scored the winning goal in the 79th minute to allow Pierre Sage’s team to secure the podium. The Champions League anthem sounded at the final whistle and the players were celebrated in a sound and light show like Florian Thauvin.
Package for this meeting, the 2018 world champion appeared, in the dark, with his wife and son to be acclaimed by the northern public. Returning to Ligue 1 last summer, after a mixed experience in Mexico and two and a half seasons at Udinese, “FloTov” was the offensive leader of the Sang et Or with 10 goals and 5 assists to his credit in the league. The collective reward is quite a revenge for him, at 33 years old.
Thauvin’s catastrophic results in C1
Thauvin will return to the C1, a competition in which he has never shone. Far from it. During his first season at OM, in 2013-2014, he was unable to do anything during his team’s rout in the LDC with the famous six defeats out of six in the group stage, against Dortmund, Arsenal and Napoli, scoring Marseille’s second goal on the 4th day against the Italians. The twirling left-hander had to wait until 2021 to see OM qualify in C1 but during a blank season on his part (two matches in all competitions). André Villas-Boas’ team also finished last in their group after matches against Manchester City, FC Porto and Olympiakos and Thauvin did not shake the net.
As the Stats Foot account reminds us, the winger revealed in Grenoble has only qualified once for the Champions League with OM in eight seasons! He therefore does the same with RC Lens. For, finally, good performances from Florian Thauvin? The residents of Bollaert have every chance of not being eliminated in the first phase.
