No results in the North

The context

After last weekend's heavy defeat by newly-crowned French champions Paris Saint-Germain, Eirik Horneland's Verts travel to the north of France this Sunday to take on RC Lens at Bollaert. Les Verts may be fighting to stay up, but the home side are in the race for Europe.

The XI

Maxime Bernauer, who missed out on last weekend's match against Paris through suspension, returns to the starting XI in place of Dylan Batubinsika. The other ten players are those who started the match against the French champions.

The game

The home side were under pressure from the start. Sarr missed a back pass and Zuriko Davitashvili took advantage. The striker went forward but Medina came back to block his shot (1e). Moments later, Yvann Maçon tried his luck from over 20 metres out. His heavy shot was saved for a corner by Ryan (8th). After an interesting team move, Zuriko Davitashvili broke into the box and fed Florian Tardieu. The number 10 saw his shot blocked by the Lens defence (9th). At the other end, again following a team move, Machado thought he had opened the scoring after a back-pass from Aguilar, but his goal was disallowed for a slight offside position (12th). After an attacking tackle, Medina fed Diouf, who incredibly missed the target from close range (28th). So much the better for Les Verts! After controlling the ball with his chest, El Aynaoui sent a volley under the bar that ‘Larso’ slammed wide (29th). From Zuriko Davitashvili's free-kick, Mickaël Nadé was denied by Ryan's clearance (31st). Pierre Ekwah's clever ball towards Zuriko Davitashvili was saved by Bah (33rd). Our keeper was twice called into action. Diouf's long-range shot and Aguilar's header from the first save (41st). In the dying seconds, Zuriko Davitashvili had her foot crushed just inside the penalty area and was awarded a penalty. Ryan dived in from the right side to deny Irvin Cardona (45' + 3). It was maddening.

After the break, the home side took control of the ball. After a free-kick, the ball hung in front of the Saint-Etienne goal but the close-range shot was deflected wide (50'). We had to wait for more than a quarter of an hour to see new situations. They were to come from Lens. After Machado's off-target free-kick (67th), Aguilar also missed the target when he pounced on a cross (70th). The solid Bah defender's header from a corner was blocked (73rd) before the St Etienne lock was broken. Served by Diouf, Machado crossed hard in front of goal for Koyalipou, who converted from close range despite Léo Pétrot's return (Lens 1-0 ASSE, 75th). Ibrahima Wadji played Sarr well with an aerial ball, but his shot from inside the area was wide of the target (80th).

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Next

Two home games are on the horizon. The home games against Brest, for which the ticket office is now open, and Lyon, for which the ticket office opens this Monday.