TOPS
We know he’s been particularly twirling since the start of the season. This Friday evening he showed it again in Losc’s 2-1 victory against Lens. Placed on his usual right side, the Kosovar did not wait long to knock out the Lens rival. Perfectly launched by Bentaleb’s crossbar, it only took three touches of the ball for the artist to score. With perfect instep control, he took the ball into a striking position on his terrible left paw, and crossed his shot to deceive Samba. A special Mbappé revisited by the Lille winger. The production is superb, great art by Edon Zhegrova. The rest of the game, he was untenable on the few balls he exploited, and scored a double.
With this Northern derby, LOSC entered a third duel against a direct opponent in Europe. After two draws against the Bretons Rennes and Brest, we had to score big points to hope to settle on the podium. This Friday, the Mastiffs were affected. Seriously, the line of four Santos-Diakite-Yoro-Ismaily held the Lens offensives, repelling the few opposing attempts. In midfield, the André-Bentaleb pair redoubled their efforts to harass the Lensois block. Even up front, the attacking players’ pressing at the right times was respected. Paulo Fonseca can congratulate himself, it is a collective performance at European level.
Quite rare to note, the referee of this northern derby reversed one of his decisions with unusual speed. 10 minutes before half-time, Facundo Medina was guilty of two muscular interventions, including a kick on Zhegrova. Without waiting, Willy Delajod showed the red card, before rethinking his sanction on advice from the video assistance. The tackle is certainly strong, but the expulsion is severe. When he went to consult the VAR, it only took him a slow motion to reconsider his judgment. It went quickly. Many complain about it, but when used in this way, VAR really reduces injustice.
FLOPS
According to Franck Haise, Losc was simply “stronger”. It was the feeling that dominated throughout the game. Faced with a confident team, Racing lacked the imagination to move this compact block. Constantly late in the duels, the Lensois only knew how to respond by making mistakes (17). They even got frustrated, earning yellow cards for Medina, Wahi and Pereira Da Costa, all avoidable. At the same time, with a total of zero shots on target after 75 minutes of play, there is indeed reason to be annoyed. With this defeat, the RCL still fails to enter the top 5 of the ranking. However, there was undoubtedly better to do.
Also read: Haise on Wahi replacing during Lille-Lens: “From time to time, there are messages to convey”
Both selected by Thierry Henry with the U23s, Elie Wahi and Andy Diouf started the match on the bench to everyone’s surprise. A choice to which Franck Haise returned in the second half. Except that Zhegrova doubled the bet just before his changes… For a team constantly looking for verticality, it is surprising to deprive itself of a player of depth like Wahi, or of projection like Diouf. This was verified as soon as they came into play. With the first projections of the Lensois match, the midfielder energized the offensives, creating the imbalance. In the 78th minute, Wahi took advantage of a high recovery to swallow up the space left by the Lille defense. Enough to prove Franck Haise wrong. “If I regret this choice? No. From time to time, there are messages to convey… His return to school is another message, a very good message,” underlined the Artesian coach.
