Ligue 2: Racing Club Lens- Paris FC

 

Paris FC's upturn in form and goals was too little, too late and the failure to win here in Lens, or results elsewhere are going to see them relegated this evening and they have paid the price for too negative an approach over 28 + games, but I will not labour that point any longer !
 

The hosts sit in 5th place, four points adrift of Metz who look in charge right now of the remaining promotion spot. However, Metz have to travel to play second placed Dijon on Sunday and it might not be easy to win there, with the home team unlikely to want to celebrate promotion in front of their own supporters with a defeat. So there is hope for Lens and that goes doubly so, as they entertain Metz on the final day of the season, in two weeks time, so, RCL can put huge pressure on the team currently in third by winning this evening. They could also improve their chances by running in a few goals and improving that goal difference and if PFC fall behind, they will surely throw caution to the wind, or even "give up" and the hosts could run away with this . My notes on their last last home game a 2-0 win over Ajaccio, who feature in the next match preview, went a lot like this ......

Racing Club Lens are a massive club by Ligue 2 standards and really ought to be playing top flight fottball, but after returning to the promised land last season, their stay only lasted a single season and not really that long as a disaster of a campaign was more or less over by mid February. That took time to recover from and quite a bit of restructuring, I spoke, ahead of their season opener, about how RCL were a club in transition, looking to regroup after relegation from the top flight and in many ways rebuild...........

After waiting three years for a return to the top flight, their damp squib of a season in Ligue 1 where relegation looked on the cards from February onwards, was always going to take some recovering from and to be honest, they must be pleased it only took two months and seven games. After taking just four points from their first seven starts, they have collected 14 from the last seven and they have started to build some real momentum over recent outings.The board showed courage in allowing Antoine Kombouaré to rebuild the squad and now starting to bear the fruit. Crowd here are always VERY supportive and noisy and over 21,000 (expected to be much bigger today) saw the 1-0 win over highflying Nancy in their last home start and to give that some Ligue 2 perspective Niort's home average attendance is sub 4,000.

Ahead of their return game with Niort last Friday I wrote ..........They have largely stayed in or around the promotion picture since then, but were a bit hit and miss through March, however, a resounding 3-0 defeat of Auxerre last week rekindled hopes of forcing their way into the top 3 and they will arrive only looking at all three points as a point is simply not going to be enough given that they need a minimum five wins from six remaining starts and at this stage of the season, playing a team with little to play for and home or away matters little, is the best you can hope for.

They won that 1-0 and losses for Metz and Clermont and two dropped points for Le Havre, really blew open the race for third and Lens are now within three points of a promotion spot and their will be totally focused on closing that gap this evening and to put some pressure on HAC who entertain second placed Nancy tomorrow afternoon. Lens were probably fortunate to take all three points against Niort, the hosts I think hit the woodwork FOUR times , I say "think" as the extended highlights I saw were of poor quality, you can see a sample on this link to the Lens website, 0.21 minutes in in, you will see one of the worst misses ever in front of a wide open goal ! Lens did come more and more into things and laid siege to the Niort goal for about 20 minutes in the middle of the second half, ending when they scored. It was all about the result, but they cannot afford to give up so many chances this evening and at home in front of what will be another huge crowd, I doubt they will and visitors Ajaccio are poor travellers and have only won once and scored 12 goals in 24 away starts and half a goal per game will not win you many matches ! They arrive without suspended right-back Anthony Lippini and are 1-3-5 in his absence, that is not overly surprising, he is the only recognised RB at the club and they played a defensive midfielder in the backline as cover last week, although, to be honest, I was not quite sure who was playing where defensively ! RCL will be kicking themselves if they do not win this.
 

Lens' failure to get anything from a trip to a decent Nimes team last week has made things difficult for them, but they have a lot of positives to take out of this campaign, considering how last season played out and this one started and three wins in their remaiining fixtures, might well get the job done in any case and I fully expect them to see part one out with a degree of comfort. PFC are without four players who have been starting regularly recently in defensive midfielder Ismael Keita, central defender Bilel Moshni ,second top scorer and right winger Rodrigue Bongongui and offensive midfielder Dylan Bahamboula, they look weaker in all areas and were already struggling on the right flank before these latest absences.

 

 

Lens : Delle, Vachoux – Ba, Cvetinovic, Ikoko, lala, Landre, Scaramozzino – Bourigeaud, Cyprien, Gbamin, Olsen – Autret, Banza, Nanizayamo, Nomenjanahary, N’Diaye.