Ligue 1: The French League table toppers Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday suffered their first defeat of the ongoing season as second-placed Lens got the better of them at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis Stadium. PSG, without Lionel Messi and Neymar lost the match by 1-3 as Kylian Mbappe was stopped from producing a comeback. With the win, Lens have come four points within PSG at 40. Also, French club AS Monaco defeated Brest in the other encounter by 1-0 and reached the fourth spot in the points table.
PSG's weakness against the counterattack was ruthlessly exposed by Lens. The northern side scored at the start of each half and dominated the midfield battle against a rattled PSG to make it nine straight home victories for coach Franck Haise's side. Lens has the league's best defence with 11 goals allowed in 17 matches, compared to 13 for PSG.
Haise celebrated his 100th game in charge by grabbing a microphone and singing a club anthem with the jubilant fans. Closely knit with its supporters, Lens has strong working-class roots from its history as a mining community and is known as Les Sang et Or (The Blood and Gold) for its yellow jersey and red shorts. Lens won its only league title in 1998 and was a close runner-up to Lyon in 2002.
The first goal came in the fifth minute. Lens used its strong pressing game to win the ball and moved it wide left to Florian Sotoca, whose goal-bound cross was palmed away by goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma only for winger Przemyslaw Frankowski to volley home. The lead was short-lived as forward Hugo Ekitiké, given a rare start in the absence of Neymar and Lionel Messi, scored from close range three minutes later after Lens failed to deal with a cross from the right. Later Lois Openda and Alexis Claude Maurice scored for the Lens as they took a 3-1 lead.
PSG was without Neymar, through suspension, and World Cup winner Messi, who is returning to training after an extended stay back home in Argentina. PSG star Kylian Mbappé was kept quiet, with the league's 13-goal top scorer mustering only a speculative shot in the 60th.
Coach Christophe Galtier's decision to play Mbappé and Morocco right back Achraf Hakimi this week in back-to-back games so soon after the World Cup appeared to backfire as both looked jaded. Galtier said they will be rested for Friday's French Cup game at Châteauroux.
Also, Monaco moved up to fourth place after winning 1-0 at home to Brest, with Russia midfielder Alexandr Golovin scoring in the 54th minute. Monaco coach Philippe Clement made a bold choice by selecting 17-year-old Eliesse Ben Seghir over established striker Wissam Ben Yedder, the club's top scorer for the past three seasons. “He brought a lot of energy to the team,” Clement said. “What's important is not a player's age but what he shows on the field.”
Ben Seghir made a sensational league debut in midweek, coming off the bench to score twice — including a Mbappé-style curling winner — to help Monaco win 3-2 at Auxerre. Monaco is level on points with third-place Marseille, which plays at Montpellier on Monday
