With Toulouse hammering Nantes 5-1 to lift the first Coupe de France in club history on Saturday night, the R33 clash at home to Lens was pushed back to Tuesday night. This meant Lens had to wait to see whether they could keep pace with Marseille - with whom they are engaged in a battle for second place and automatic Champions League qualification - and although they got the result they were after, it wasn't a walk in the park for Les Sang et Or.

'We remained solid'

"We had a very complicated start," said coach Franck Haise, who admitted that the extra days' wait for the match had disrupted the squad's routine. "During the first 25 minutes, we were at sixes and sevens. Fortunately, we remained solid and we scored at a good time for us. We started to lift our heads. After that, we played an intelligent second half. We were strong, we were never flamboyant in this game."

Haise had club top scorer Loïs OPenda's 18th goal of the season to thank for the result, the Belgian danger man dummying his man before conjuring the perfect angled header past Maxime Dupé. Lens remain third, one point behind Marseille as they prepare to go head to head in one of the most decisive matches of the season at the Stade Bollaert on Saturday night.  

'Not insignificant'!

The winner will certainly be in pole position to power on an take second place, but Haise isn't counting his chickens.

"There is never anything guaranteed in football. It's up to us to continue by playing high-level matches as we did against Monaco or by being solid like we were tonight. We took a big step towards a podium finish but we still have a lot of battles to fight," Haise explained, naturally well aware of the stakes. "Appetite will be needed, that's for sure. There will be some on the other side. It's a great game to play, the second against the third with five matches to go, it's not insignificant."

The clash at home to Marseille kicks off at 21:00 at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in Lens on Saturday night.