Franck Haise enjoyed another remarkable scalp with newly-promoted RC Lens on Wednesday as his side won in Marseille, and he then called on Les Sang et Or to aim high in the second half of the season.
Simon Banza’s goal gave Lens a 1-0 win at the Orange Vélodrome as they climbed up to seventh place in the table, just one point behind OM in sixth. Crucially they already have more than twice as many points as third-bottom Nîmes Olympique, so their first aim of securing survival is now easily in sight meaning they are set to enjoy their best top-flight season in more than a decade.
“It is nice to beat big teams, especially when you do so in style,” said coach Haise as Lens added the scalp of Marseille to those of Paris Saint-Germain, Stade Rennais FC and AS Monaco, all sides they beat in the first half of the campaign.
“We are close to securing safety but we still need to put points on the board and work hard, which the players are already doing,” added Haise.
“We have 31 points and we need to keep going. We are in quite a comfortable position after 20 games but let’s keep being ambitious.”
Next up for Lens is a home meeting with OGC Nice on Saturday.
