Lens loses to Lorient and loses ground in Ligue 1

Two falls for Lens. Beaten in Strasbourg (2-1) last weekend, the Sang et Or fell against Lorient (0-1) this Saturday, during the third day of Ligue 1. Koné's goal in the 54th minute for the Merlus, who won their first victory of the season and are, at least provisionally, in seventh place in the standings. Before launching their Champions League campaign on Thursday at Slavia Prague, the Lensois are ninth, having lost Matthieu Udol and Yacine Titraoui to injury. Souleymane Sagnan received a red card at the end.

The Sang et Or were too timid offensively in this meeting, but also lacked benchmarks in defense. Udol's premature exit didn't help either... Exploiting the spaces behind and on the wings of the blood and gold defense, the Lorient players had a good first half hour, creating the best situations. But they first sinned in the last gesture, like this too soft strike from Koné (28th) while he was alone in the area, forgotten by a defense that was too wait-and-see.

Before the break, the Artesians were more enterprising, occupying the edges of the Lorient area. But they were not very dangerous, with the exception of a shot from Amadou Haidara diverted by Yvon Mvogo (44th).

Cold snap in the second period

While they returned from the locker room with the intentions and mastery displayed at the end of the first period, Dino Toppmöller's players were picked off. Panos Katseris then Koné perfectly exploited a lost ball in the Lens camp, after a bad pass from Ismaelo Ganiou, to open the scoring (54th). The Merlus could even have made the break and taken advantage of the laxity of the Lens rearguard if Jean-Victor Makengo, alone at the penalty spot, had not taken too much of his shot (60th)!

Even when led, the Artésiens had great difficulty bringing danger to the opposing goal. A providential man for the Sang et Or at the start of the season, Florian Thauvin struggled to make an impact offensively, barely managing to find his attacking partners Abdallah Sima and Thorgan Hazard, who were too transparent.

The entries of Florian Sotoca and Odsonne Edouard will not have changed anything and Lens did not appear much more dangerous at the end of the match, with the exception of the attempts of Michaël Cuisance (77th) and Andrija Bulatovic (79th). Too little to hope to reverse the course of the game and avoid a few whistles from Bollaert at the final whistle. As a first warning.