Saturday, October 30, 2021 at 10:58 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 23:03

Olympique Lyon took a big step in the ranking in the Ligue 1 on Saturday evening. The team of trainer Peter Bosz was 2-1 too strong for RC Lens at home, which offered excellent resistance. With the win, Lyon climbs from ninth to fifth place with nineteen points from twelve matches. Next week, the team will face direct competitor Stade Rennes, which has one point less and played one game less.

Although Lyon clearly had the better papers against Lens, it was the visitors who created the first danger of the match. After thirteen minutes of play, Florian Sotoca failed to give his team the lead. The attacker had the ball before shooting, but saw his effort narrowly blocked by Jason Denayer. A minute later, a bet by Wesley Said was taken off the goal line by another Lyon defender.

The home team did very little in the first quarter of the game, but then took the lead. Karl Toko Ekambi was allowed to moor from eleven meters after a foul by Facundo Medina on Bruno Guimarães. The striker did not fail and scored for the fourth game in a row (five goals in total). After more than half an hour of play, Lens thought he would come alongside, but Jonathan Clauss’ fluke was rejected after the intervention of the VAR for offside. Not much later Lyon made it 2-0.

A shot by Ekambi could initially be stopped by Jean-Louis Leca, but on the rebound from Houssem Aouar the goalkeeper had no chance: 2-0. In the second act there was considerably less to enjoy in the Parc Olympique Lyonnais. Lucas Paquetá, among others, quickly killed an opportunity on behalf of Bosz’s team. Out of nowhere, Lens brought the tension back after more than an hour of play, when Arnaud Kalimuendo worked the ball somewhat fortunately behind goalkeeper Anthony Lopes in the left corner: 2-1. The visitors went looking for the equalizer in the last quarter and came close via Przemyslaw Frankowski, but this time Lopes was in the way.