Entering the game in the 56th minute, the 22-year-old Belgian international delighted the public by scoring three goals (60th, 86th, 90th 2) to bend a promoted Toulouse player who did not however deserve it.
For their fourteenth consecutive sold-out home match, the Sang et Or thanked their supporters by continuing their impressive clean sheet with a seventh victory in seven matches this season.
The RCL, which even allowed itself the luxury of missing a penalty, however had difficulty in forcing the lock of Téfécé, very well organized and dangerous against. But Openda, who hadn’t scored since Matchday 6, left him no chance…
After this ninth success of the season, Lens, which is making the best start in its history, already totals 30 points and has consolidated its place as runner-up to Paris SG, which sits at the top of L1 with 32 units on the clock before receiving Troyes Saturday (5 p.m.).
The promoted Toulouse remains installed in the middle of the table with 16 points (10th) but will still have two complicated matches before the truce against Monaco and Rennes.
Lens confiscated the entry ball and the first opportunity was logically artesian with a rush from David Pereira Da Costa, who served at the entrance to the surface Seko Fofana, whose pivot shot flew into the stands (7th).
On the next, even more frank, the RCL failed to achieve a quick transition after a Toulouse corner: Da Costa shifted Fofana, who extended for Przemyslaw Frankowski, whose cross was taken over by the Ivorian who shot just off (13th).
If the Blood and Gold had control of the operations, however, it took two saving tackles in the area of Deiver Machado in front of Brecht Dejaegere (28th) then of the ghost Jonathan Gradit against Zakaria Aboukhal (33rd) to prevent the Violets from opening the score against the run of play.
Returning from the locker room, Lens wasted the opportunity to take control when Fofana saw his penalty, obtained a few seconds earlier by Pereira Da Costa, being pushed back by Dupé (50th).
Franck Haise then launched Openda and Florian Sotoca, two usual starters he had left on the bench, to revitalize his team. And his coaching quickly proved to be a winner!
After several redoubled passes, the former Grenoble player delivered a fleeing center which was victoriously taken over by the Belgian international (1-0, 60th).
Openda then took advantage of a bad pass back from Toulouse to get ahead of Anthony Rouault and secure the Lensoise victory (2-0, 86th), before igniting Bollaert by offering himself a hat-trick with a nice cross shot (90th 2) .