Ignatius Ganago scored the only goal of the game as newly promoted RC Lens registered a shock 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday as the reigning French champions - without Neymar and Kylian Mbappé among others - began their title defence with a defeat.
THE MATCH
Without a host of first-team superstars, notably COVID-19 victims Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, the UEFA Champions League runners-up made their Ligue 1 Uber Eats bow in the new season with some unfamiliar faces in their line-up. Kays Ruiz Atil and Arnaud Kalimuendo, both 18 and making their top-flight debuts, featured in a three-man front line in which Pablo Sarabia was the only experienced figure.
The back line was, however, made up of internationals from France, Germany and Spain, but they still struggled to keep the newly promoted hosts — backed by a boisterous handful of fans — at arm's length. Ganago might have done better with an early cross (4'). He did very nearly fully exploit another opportunity he worked for himself, jinking to the edge of the box before bending a shot off a post with Marcin Bulka, playing just his seccond Ligue 1 Uber Eats game, beaten (17').
PSG, starting a league record 47th successive top-flight campaign, had scored four goals or more in each of their last four matches of last season. A fifth would have seen them equal the 1952 record of Stade de Reims, but Thomas Tuchel's side rarely looked like finding the net.
The closest they came before the break was from Ruiz-Atil, who showed enough impressive touches to suggest the hype around his talent is fully justified. The Lyon-born youngster, who was at Barcelona's youth academy from the age of seven until joining PSG in 2015, stepped forward in the left-hand channel before bending a shot just wide of Jean-Louis Leca's left-hand post.
PSG had not lost any of their last nine Ligue 1 meetings with Lens, but gifted their hosts a welcome win before the hour mark. When Marco Verratti called for the ball facing his own goal, Bulka obliged, but had failed to spot Ganago, who muscled the Italy midfielder off the ball and then fired a rising shot beyond Bulka to claim his first goal for his new club (57').
Bulka made some amends when he blocked Simon Banza's close-range diving header (63') as Lens threatened to pad their advantage. Ander Herrera fired a well-placed free-kick over (64'), but Lens substitute Florian Sotoca should have headed home a second (79').
Not that it mattered as Lens became the first team to prevent PSG scoring in what would have been a league record 33 away matches, and ensured the French champions suffered their first opening-game defeat since the start of the QSI era in 2011.
THE PLAYER: Ignatius Ganago
The summer signing from OGC Nice was a constant menace to the PSG defence. His pace proved a significant problem, and he would have had the opening goal in the first half but for a matter of a few centimetres.
THE STAT: 3
Ganago's goal came from the first attempt on target of the match, but it was his third in as many league matches against PSG.
