The gap with the previous season is stark. After ten matches, RC Lens sits in 11th place with 13 points, whereas it had been Paris Saint-Germain’s runner-up.
The Marseille club has the last word in the evening’s marquee match. Lens, for its part, finds no reassurance before an international break lasting two weeks.
The start of the match, however, suggests something else. Two goals scored in twenty minutes point to an offensive fireworks display.
In the second half, they put their foot on the ball a little more. Clear-cut chances, meanwhile, are slow to come.
Marseille thus closes the matchday with a win, in a Bollaert that was at first hostile to its own.
A 20-year-old “minot” proves opportunistic. He follows up Amine Gouiri’s miss in front of the goal line and cancels out Lens’s efforts on the night.
Florian Thauvin scores his fifth goal of the season and restores hope for RC Lens.
The 1-1 score then remains unchanged for a long time. The promised breakthrough does not materialize.