No winner this Sunday during the closing clash of the fourth day of L1 between Lens and Lyon, at Bollaert.
One point, that’s all. Lens and Lyon shared the points this Sunday (0-0), in a sold-out Bollaert for the 51st time in a row, during the last match of the fourth day of Ligue 1. The Blood and Gold were keen to get back on track after their elimination in the Europa Conference League against Panathinaikos and the draw against Monaco before the break. Especially since Lens had the opportunity to take 4th place from the Canaries, defeated earlier on their home turf against Stade de Reims (1-2). Opposite, Lyon with Lacazette and Orban preferred to Mikautadze, and without their new recruit Veretout, wanted to continue after their great success against Strasbourg on the last day.
An offside goal and vigilant goalkeepers in the first act
The locals dominated a tight first half by developing long sequences of possession. Lyon thought they had opened the scoring at the start of the match after a mix-up in the area, Lacazette served his partner Orban (10′) who pushed the ball into the empty goal… but the Nigerian was offside by a few centimetres. If clear chances were lacking, the goalkeepers still had to work hard. Samba pushed back a shot from the fiery Abner Vinicius (27′) and made a save of which he has the secret on a powerful shot from Lacazette (32′). Before the break, Perri responded with a nice save on a heavy strike from Machado.
Another offside goal and… nothing else
After the break, Lyon gave themselves a (very) scare, Niakhaté saved his team with a superb intervention on a shot from Da Costa (47′).
Afterwards, Pierre Sage’s men pressed and made Lens doubt at the restart. A pressure rewarded by a goal from Gift Orban, the Nigerian strong in the duel got rid of Medina to conclude powerfully (55′)… but problem, the former Ghent player was still in an offside position.
Lyon tried and made changes, Mikautadze had his chance and Veretout played his first minutes in his new jersey (65′) but without success. Same thing for Lens, the solution did not come from the bench, despite a serious entry, the recruit Satriano was not able to be decisive. To respond to Samba, it was the Lyon goalkeeper Perri who sealed the point of the draw by blocking a sharp strike from Ojediran in the last moments (95′). With this 0-0, the Blood and Gold still undefeated appear in fourth place in the Ligue 1 standings, while OL, self-declared candidate for the title according to John Textor, is 13th.
