Lens overturned Toulouse on Friday evening in the opening match of the 30th round of Ligue 1, an “ideal scenario” for Pierre Sage, the Lens coach.
“The scenario is ideal for us in the sense that we experienced something with our extraordinary fans,” said Lens coach Pierre Sage after the thrilling and invigorating victory against Toulouse (3-2) on Friday evening.
Two weeks after the setback suffered against Lille in the derby (3-0), the Sang et Or bounced back by settling a debt in front of their Bollaert stadium supporters at the opening of the 30th round of Ligue 1. They managed to do so despite a completely failed start, marked by two avoidable goals (Cristian Casseres, 6th; Seny Koumbassa, 13th), to which they responded with goals from Saud Abdulhamid (61st), Adrien Thomasson (67th) and finally Ismaël Ganiou (90th+1).
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This led to an unforgettable match, as assured by Pierre Sage. “It’s the kind of thing that at some point stories are written around a group, a club, a season and I think today we are able to write beautiful lines,” he said. This success comes after some doubts raised by the missed derby and declarations by the coach, who had criticized several players without naming them.
Former Lyon coach expressed his satisfaction with the reaction of his players. “It was important for us to mark our reaction and maybe our end of the season through a special experience that will bring us a lot of fuel, a lot of energy, a lot of satisfaction to finish our two objectives well,” he said. He also noted the “real psychological advantage” taken by his team, four days before facing Toulouse in the Coupe de France semi-final on Tuesday (9:10pm) still at Bollaert.
Toulouse coach Carles Martinez Novell regretted the red card received by Yann Gboho in the 17th minute, which “changed the game a lot.” “It is important for us not to find ourselves in this situation again,” he emphasized while noting that he will have to “find a solution” to replace one of his best assets (ten goals in Ligue 1), who is suspended for the Coupe de France semi-final.
