Ligue 1, 13th day – Lens beats Toulouse (3-0) and returns to two points from PSG, hat-trick for Loïs Openda

The Sang et Or chain and savor. Lens won a nice and big victory against Toulouse on Friday, opening the 13th day of Ligue 1 (3-0). If the Northerners initially struggled against eye-catching visitors, they found the fault thanks to Loïs Openda. Coming off the bench, the striker caught fire and slammed a resounding hat-trick (60th, 86th, 90th + 2) while Seko Fofana had missed a penalty (50th). The RCL wins a 7th success in as many home games and consolidates its place as runner-up.

Happy, Openda and his teammates spent a long time on the lawn of a Bollaert stadium which was still packed to celebrate this success with their supporters. The Belgian international even took the microphone to sing: “But what happened? We nagged them“. The Lensoise joy was intense because the battle was difficult to win.

Lens had first trampled

If the promoted Toulouse wanted to be ambitious in the first minutes, they quickly had to back down against a well-oiled Lensoise machine. The Northerners made their collective power speak and captain Seko Fofana almost found the fault after an express counter but he missed the target (12th). Jostled, Toulouse was however able to count on the responsiveness of Anthony Rouault in the central hinge and Maxime Dupé was not really worried in the first period.

Unable to find the right inspiration in attack, the Lensois also almost got surprised in defense. It took two in extremis returns from Deiver Machado on Brecht Dejeagere (29th) and Jonathan Gradit on Zakaria Aboukhlal (34th) to prevent the Violets from opening the scoring. Franck Haise’s men, however, clearly raised their voices after the break and quickly obtained a penalty for a foul by Stijn Spierings on David Pereira da Costa (48th). Fofana however stumbled on Dupé, excellent in this exercise with already 3 penalties rejected out of 4 this season.

Openda broke everything

The Lensois coach quickly decided to take matters into his own hands by launching his usual holders Florian Sotoca and Openda, who have been less decisive lately (55th). The duo immediately stood out and the first found the head of the second on a small cross from the right (1-0, 60th). Mute since the 6th day, Openda has finally signed its 5th goal of the season.

Lens, however, did not want to drive the point home and left the initiative to Toulouse. Like this missed header from Moussa Diarra at six meters (68th), the visitors however remained definitively imprecise and did not target any of their 9 shots in total in this meeting. Also out of the Lensois bench, Alexis Claude-Maurice, he framed his shot after two nice hooks in the area of ​​​​Dupé who stood up to him (82nd).

It was said that the man of the evening would be Openda. The 22-year-old striker took advantage of a missed back pass from Spierings to earn himself a double (2-0, 86th). He even signed a hat trick with a cross shot on the right in added time (3-0, 90th + 2). Openda scored on each of their attempts and were able to celebrate their last goal by taking off their shirt to show it to the public like Lionel Messi or Nabil Fekir. He became the fourth substitute to score a hat-trick in a Ligue 1 match in the 21st century. With such resources at its disposal and its fiery audience, Lens can dream out loud.