It’s a long wait that will end on Saturday afternoon. For the first time in eleven years, the Bollaert stadium will be sold out for the North derby between RC Lens and Losc. Due to several years in Ligue 2, the relocation of a season to Amiens and the Covid pandemic and its closed-door matches, the Lensoise enclosure was unable to accommodate this great meeting in a stadium full. So inevitably, the whole city of Lens is bubbling on the eve of this event under normal conditions.
Example at Muriel, a fan bar located in front of the stadium where the derby is on everyone’s lips. “This is clearly the topic of the week at the café. It is euphoria in the streets of Lens. It will do good after months of hardship. We are in lack of football and here, it is a land of football. I hope that the party will be good and that we will win, ”says Muriel, who ordered several dozen barrels of beer for the event.
“We are very happy that things are getting underway again”
Same impatience at Jean-Paul Dambrine. The local king of the fries, who will install his four friteries around the stadium on Saturday, is already ready to peel hundreds of kilos of potatoes to commune around a good American fricadelle. And especially to find the scent of the derby after months of pandemic where its activity was almost at a standstill.
“We are very happy that things are getting underway again. It will allow you to put a little butter in the spinach after complicated months for the event. Even if the schedule (5 p.m.) is not “Sensas”. It would have been better if it had been at 8:30 p.m. But we are happy to receive a lot of people ”, rejoices the owner of the chip shops… Sensas.
Lens has not beaten Lille in Ligue 1 for fifteen years
On the side of the supporters, impatience is just as visible. On Wednesday, they were already more than 2,000 to come for the training of the exceptionally shifted Blood and Gold in Bollaert. It must be said that sportingly, Lens is doing well. Unbeaten since the start of the season, Racing, 5th in Ligue 1, seems capable of bending the rival Lille (12th). A victory that fans have been waiting for since 2006, the date of the last victory in the League of Blood and Gold against rivals. And yet, compared to last season, the fans play it rather low profile in the pre-match animations as explained by Norman Noisette, president of the Lens United federation which brings together several sections of Lensois supporters.
“Last year, we did two show of strength before the game and we took two spankings (0-4; 0-3). We try to stay humble because the last two of last season have folded the game. Lille have been above us for ten years, they are reigning French champions, they play in the Champions League. To choose, I would prefer that we win on the ground rather than on the bridges or around the stadium ”, explains the supporter.
“It’s really the return of football as we like it”
But don’t go thinking that nothing special will happen either. A large tifo will be deployed before the match. And above all, the atmosphere will gradually build up in and around the stadium before the derby. “The terraces of cafes and restaurants will be full several before kick-off. It’s really the return of football as we like it, a derby with tension. It’s the match everyone has been waiting for eleven years at Bollaert. It’s been forever, ”says Norman Noisette.
The party, nothing but the party, that’s what everyone is hoping for in Lens for the derby. Even if some fear clashes. Because the antagonism between the supporters of the two camps is strong and the short distance between the two cities (35 km) could lead some Lille to disembark on Saturday in Lens. To avoid this, a prefectural decree governing the movement of Lille supporters to Lens was taken on Tuesday.
Safety at the heart of concerns
From Friday 5 p.m. until kick-off on Saturday, supporters of Losc and Lens will not be able to visit the arrondissements of Arras and Béthune. On match day, Losc fans without a ticket will be persona non grata in a large part of the Lens district. Those with a ticket will have to meet in Vendin-le-Vieil to then reach the stadium supervised by the police.
Drastic measures in a meeting considered high risk by the police. “It’s a football match, we’re not going to war,” Muriel slices from her coffee. A message of appeasement that many want to share this weekend for the comeback of this regional sporting event.