Moses Simon's last-minute strike gave Nantes a superb come-from-behind 3-2 win against Lens at La Beaujoire on Friday evening.
THE MATCH
Round 18 kicked off at an atmospheric Beaujoire with Les Canaris looking to take advantage of the absences of influential Lens duo Jonathan Clauss and Gaël Kakuta. Lens coach Franck Haise was hoping for his side to recapture some of their early-season form after picking up just three points from their last four games.
Ask and you shall receive
Haise got just the start he wanted. An ominous-looking cross from Massadio Haidara was poorly dealt with by the usually reliable Nantes 'keeper Alban Lafont and David Pereira da Costa smashed home the rebound to put the visitors in front (7').
Lens were not ready to ease up on Antoine Kombouaré's men and striker Arnaud Kalimuendo latched onto da Costa's through ball, rounded the onrushing Lafont and slid home his fifth goal of the season (15').
The hosts were left shell-shocked and Kalimuendo was proving to be a major headache for Nantes' Nicolas Pallois and his defensive partners. The striker, on loan from Paris Saint-Germain was a constant threat with his movement and short bursts of speed and looked menacing at every opportunity.
When Kalimuendo was eventually stopped in his tracks, Andrei Girotto found himself in the referee's notebook, such was the first-half dominance of the 19-year-old Frenchman.
The two goals visibly knocked the stuffing out of a Nantes side coming into the game on the back of a 1-0 win at Lorient last weekend and Ludovic Blas squandered the hosts first real chance of the half, when his thunderous effort was deflected just wide (38').
Nantes mustered up one final chance of the opening period when Randal Kolo Muani's outstretched leg was unable to get on the end of Blas' teasing cross (45').
Lens replaced injured 'keeper Jean-Louis Leca with Wuilker Farinez at half time and it took Nantes just four minutes of the second half to breach the Venezuelan.
Game on
Blas' effort from the edge of the area took a fortunate deflection off Kolo Muani and found the back of the net to send La Beaujoire into raptures (49').
Then, a blistering box-to-box counter attack started by Lafont and consisting of just four passes, saw Willem Guebbels square it for Kolo Muani and he tapped home his second of the night from close-range (57').
The home side were now in the ascendancy and the game threatened to boil over as the intensity and frustration levels were turned up a notch. Blas, who was booked in the melee was now orchestrating proceedings and looked like the man most likely to complete the turnaround.
Moses Simon was next to test Farinez, but his effort hit the side netting (73').
Haise replaced the dangerous duo of Kalimuendo and da Costa with 15 minutes to go, with Corentin Jean and Ignatius Ganago introduced to freshen up his attacking options as Lens struggled to impose themselves on the second half. Nantes meanwhile, were spurred on by their fans in hope of finding a famous winner.
In a rare second-half chance for Lens, substitute Jean missed a glorious chance to win it but his shot from eight-yards was blocked, when he should have tested Lafont at the very least (86').
Last-gasp winner
Then, out of nowhere, the comeback was completed by a goal worthy of winning any game. Moses Simon cut in from the left and hit an unstoppable strike into the top corner (90') to give Les Canaris a fantastic three points, leaving Lens without a win in five.
THE PLAYER: Ludovic Blas
A fantastic performance from Blas who was the driving force behind Nantes' second-half revival. His positivity in possession and a want to create at every possible opportunity, set the tone for Nantes who claimed three memorable points.
THE STAT: 4
For the fourth consecutive match, Lens relinquished a lead - something that will no doubt give coach Frank Haise sleepless nights. The dropped points mean Lens provisionally occupy fourth place in Ligue 1 Uber Eats instead of a comfortable second place position on the table had Les Sang et Or held onto their leads. Will these dropped points come back to haunt Lens at the end of the season?
