Thanks to goals from Said and Cortès, RC Lens got the better of Stade de Reims (1-0).
The RC Lens week ends as well as it began. After validating its ticket for the Europa League play-offs, the Artesian team followed up with success in the championship. A victory against Reims (1-0) which allows it to reach 5e place in the ranking.
Lens overcame its cascade of packages
The Sang et Or deserve credit for having won this meeting. Because Reims is one of the most attractive teams in Ligue 1 and also because they were not at full strength for this meeting. Far from there. They were deprived of five major elements (Medina, Sotoca, Gradit, Mendy and Machado). In these circumstances, having secured full points is a real performance.
And the Northerners were not satisfied with a narrow victory. They won it 2-0, with one goal in each half. In the first period, Wesley Said gave them the advantage (43e) taking advantage of a huge disagreement between Okumu and his goalkeeper Diouf. Then, at 75e, Oscar Cortès was responsible for doubling the lead by placing a beautiful diving header on a cross from Ruben Aguilar. We had to wait for the intervention of the VAR for validation, but the goal was valid. And the Bollaert speaker could express its relief.
photo credit: Icon Sport
Lens remains on 11 matches without defeat.
eims missed his chance
Lens therefore won. However, Haise’s men can be happy that the Champenois were quite clumsy in this meeting. At 0-0, the Japanese Ito missed a great opportunity to open the scoring by shooting at a Lens defender while the goals were wide open to him. Then, at 1-0, it was Yunis Abdelhamid who missed the equalizer by not aiming his header.
With its victory of the day, Lens climbs to a good 5e place in the ranking. Who would have believed it when the French vice-champions were relegable at the very start of the year. Reims, for its part, lets go and finds itself 8e. The Will Still magic no longer works.
