Four days after its stunning success against Lille in the Coupe de France, Lens again snatched the victory in extremis against Rennes (1-0), this Saturday during the 20th day of Ligue 1. The RCL, who no longer had won for two months in the Championship (3 draws, 3 defeats), won thanks to a goal scored by the former Rennais Wesley Saïd at the very end of the game (89th).
The Sang et Or, more dangerous than their evening opponents, found the loophole after a fairly closed match between two of L1’s best attacks. They grab two places and temporarily climb to 6th place in the standings, with 30 points. A real rebound in the race for qualifying places for the European Cups.
Rennes, who remained on a stinging elimination on penalties in Nancy (L2) in the Coupe de France last weekend, chained a third defeat in a row in the league and stagnated in fourth place with 31 units on the clock, at a length of the third, Nice, which can take off in case of success in Brest on Sunday.
A disappointing first period
This meeting was less disturbed by contaminations than several others during this 20th day of Ligue 1: Bordeaux played very diminished against OM while the Covid-19 caused the postponement of Lille-Lorient, Angers-Saint-Etienne and Montpellier-Troyes. The match was played in pouring and uninterrupted rain, leading to a rather disappointing first period between two well-established and cautious teams. In search of confidence, the Bretons took very few risks against voluntary Lensois but not always very precise.
The Artesians, however, managed to create several chances but they did not succeed in defeating the vigilance of the young goalkeeper Dogan Alemdar. Thus, the Turk repelled Arnaud Kalimuendo’s first attempt, a pivot shot (11th), before blocking the strike from the attacker loaned by Paris SG (42nd). Fofana, still very strong after a superb performance against Losc on Tuesday, saw Adrien Truffert narrowly deflect his powerful shot (30th).
Lens king of “money time”
The Rennais, who often made the wrong choices in the last thirty meters, hardly ever worried Jean-Louis Leca, except on a center of Gaëtan Laborde captured with difficulty by Corsica (33rd).
After the break, the Bretons woke up a little and began to approach the Lensoise surface. A goal from Laborde was rightly refused for offside (59th), then Jérémy Doku, who had just entered the game, made a superb rush punctuated by a receding center pushed back by the Artesian defense (60th). Less legs than in the first act, the Sang et Or struggled to get hold of a situation against the Rennes block. Corentin Jean, however, put Alemdar to work on a powerful long shot (78th).
But like Tuesday against Losc, where they had returned to 2-2 in added time after being led 2-0 on the hour mark, the Lensois still made the difference in the “money-time”: after a Overflow on the right side, Clauss centered in the area and Saïd took over without control to offer the victory to his family (1-0, 89th).
Friday evening, Marseille had won (1-0) in Bordeaux, decimated by the cases of Covid, for the first time since 1977, thus regaining the place of dolphin of Paris SG with 36 points. The championship leader will close this 20th day on Sunday evening (8:45 p.m.) on the lawn of Lyon.