We don’t know if it’s the fact of having had to stay in the garage for 15 days because of the postponement of the match against PSG, the last residues not well evacuated from the spanking received in Lille (3-0), or just an alarm failure, but the Lensois came close to disaster Friday evening at the opening of the 30th day of Ligue 1 against Toulouse.
“We will remember it for a long time”
Pierre Sage’s players completely missed their start, conceding two completely avoidable goals, first by Cristian Casseres on a big hand fault from Robin Risser (6th) then by Seny Koumbassa (13th). Everything changed a few minutes later, with the direct red card inflicted on Toulouse’s Yann Gboho (17th). The match then transformed into an endless attack-defense (42 shots attempted including 13 on target, the highest total in a match of 1 since the statistician Opta analyzed the competition).
Ineffective until the break, the Lensois took advantage of the successive entries of Allan Saint-Maximin, Odsonne Edouard then Florian Thauvin, to gradually make their opponents bend. Saud Abdulhamid (61st) and Adrien Thomasson (67th) brought them back to level, and then the goal of the deliverance came from a header from Ismaëlo Ganiou in stoppage time (90th + 1), with the Bollaert public definitely going into meltdown. Even better like this.
“The scenario is ideal for us in the sense that we experienced something with our audience which is extraordinary,” reacted Pierre Sage after this stunning success. This match will be remembered for a long time. It’s these kinds of things that at a given moment mean that there are stories being written around a group, a club, a season and I think that today we are able to write beautiful lines. »
This success comes after some doubts arising from the failed derby and then statements from Sage himself, who had pointed the finger at several players. He had not named them, but seeing Edouard or Thauvin on the bench at the start of the match was probably not a coincidence. The former OL coach said he was “satisfied” with the reaction of his troops.
“It was important for us to mark our reaction and perhaps our end of the season through a somewhat special experience which will give us a lot of fuel, a lot of energy, a lot of satisfaction to successfully finish our two objectives. »
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He also noted the “real psychological advantage” taken by his team, four days before meeting Toulouse in the semi-final of the Coupe de France, Tuesday (9:10 p.m.) still in Bollaert. On the Toulouse side, however, we will have to get over it, and digest the expulsion of Ghobo, one of the driving forces of the team since the start of the season and who will be greatly missed for this meeting.
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