Lens inflicted the first Ligue 1 Uber Eats defeat of the season on league leaders Paris Saint-Germain, inching themselves to within four points of top spot - ligue1.com looks at how the northerners have morphed into genuine title challengers.
SAMBA & SOLIDITY
With just 11 goals conceded in 17 matches, Franck Haise's side boast the best backline in the division. The summer recruitment of Brice Samba in goal has much to do with that — his brilliant save from Pablo Sarabia's point-blank header sucked any hope PSG had of a late rally. But Samba has made just 45 saves all season — PSG's Gianluigi Donnarumma has made 49 for the league leaders — which shows the ex-Nottingham Forest 'keeper is far from the only reason the Sang et Or have been tough to break down.
Cheick Doucouré's summer departure for the English Premier League could have been a significant blow, but Lens were prepared with Salis Abdul Samed, who after arriving from Clermont just six months ago looks like he has been playing alongside Seko Fofana for seasons.
WATCH: Lens hand PSG first league defeat of season
The pair's industry is the hallmark of a team that works incredibly hard. Against PSG the stats speak for themselves: 53.3% of duels won to 46.7%, and a massive 61.5% to 38.5% of aerial duels. A 76.2% success rate in their 21 tackles — to PSG's paltry 38.5% from 13 — suggests Lens simply wanted it more, yet only conceded four more fouls than their opponents, who picked up three yellow cards to the hosts' two.
Tough, yes. Dirty, no, and always in their opponents' faces. But they're no kick and rush side either, and — with Samba pushing up to act as an outfield player — were able to show that by easing their way through the PSG press, while their own counter-pressing brought about the third goal just after the half-time interval when they again showed an up and at 'em attitude while most teams would have been cautious.
"Apart from the goal when we defended deep for too long, we found answers to all the questions," explained Haise, who celebrated his 100th competitive game as Lens coach in style. "We played the ball out under pressure and managed to make something of it."
CUTTING EDGE
The fact they did "make something" of their possession is down to the fact they have a ruthless cutting edge too. Their three goals came from just four shots on target — PSG had six — and in Loïs Openda, they have unearthed a gem of a forward.
He took his tally to eight league goals — the most of any Belgian player across Europe's top five leagues — and also showed his ability to make as well as take goals in teeing up Alexis Claude-Maurice for the third. "I know that getting in behind, against any player, could help us," said Openda, a summer signing from Club Brugge. "I think I did that quite well to help my team."
The 22-year-old had significant support with Florian Sotoca, Claude-Maurice, and Fofana, whose superb through ball set up Openda for the second goal that displayed Lens' ability to punish opponents on the counter-attack.
But as Haise pointed out, they scored their three goals in different ways, and the fact right wing-back Massadio Haïdara sent over the cross for left wing-back Przemyslaw Frankowski to net the opening goal just five minutes into the match — when most teams would be trying to 'keep it tight' against PSG — shows what marks Lens out from the crowd: courage.
"When we're ambitious in our play, we can make progress," said Haise, whose team stretched the three-man PSG midfield across the Stade Bollaert pitch to create spaces which were then fully exploited.
TEAM EFFORT
"We now have to keep our hunger and our collective strength in every game regardless of the opponent," Haise had added, highlighting the fact that this season — as in previous campaigns under him — success has been a squad achievement.
With David da Pereira Costa sidelined by a shoulder injury picked up in the goalless draw with Nice, Claude-Maurice seamlessly stepped back into the side. Deiver Machado and Haïdara can interchange on the left, while Haise has a string of alternatives to his first-choice starting XI across the pitch with the likes of Wesley Saïd, Jean Onana and Lukasz Poreba.
"We're better armed than in previous seasons," said Fofana. "We now have to keep that same attitude, not get carried away with ourselves, keep listening to the coach's instructions and putting in the energy that makes us go forward."
It is a formula that has earned them 40 points from 17 games, the second-highest tally for a team ranked second in the league at this stage of a season behind Nîmes in 1959/60. Les Crocodiles would eventually finish league runners-up that season — can Lens go one better and lift the title for the first time since 1998?
