RC Lens – Paris Saint-Germain: Safonov’s Safe Hands Make it Five In A Row (0-2)

For the fifth season in a row, Paris Saint-Germain would be crowned Ligue 1 champions. Unlike most other seasons, this was a campaign where they were pushed to the brink by worthy challengers, RC Lens. In a match where Lens really should have won comfortably, PSG were let off the hook by the safe hands of Matvei Safonov. 

Tactical analysis and match report by Nick Hartland.

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RC Lens had made their displeasure over Paris Saint-Germain’s “unsportsmanlike” request to reschedule this match from its original date on the 11th of April, known with a blistering press release. At the time of the announcement, Lens were only one point behind the reigning champions, albeit Les Parisiens had a game in hand. Since then, the gap has widened to six points. 

The sixteen-year-old, Mezian Mesloub, eleven seconds into his professional debut, kept the title race alive ahead of Lens’s rescheduled meeting when he scored the winner in the 1-0 win over FC Nantes on Friday evening. Anything but a win for Lens over PSG would see the league decided ahead of the final game of the season… although in truth, it would take a minor miracle for the title to land anywhere but back in the capital, considering PSG’s vastly superior goal difference. 

Pierre Sage went with his usual 3-4-3 shape. In goal, Robin Risser with a back three of Malang Sarr, Samson Baidoo, and Ismaëlo Ganiou. Out wide, Matthieu Udol and Ruben Aguilar as wing-backs, with Adrien Thomasson and Mamadou Sangaré in the center. Up front, Odsonne Édouard was supported on either side by Wesley Saïd and Abdallah Sima. 

Luis Enrique likewise kept with PSG’s 4-3-3 formation. Matvei Safonov returned to goal, while Lucas Hernandez, Lucas Beraldo, Illia Zabarnyi, and Senny Mayulu made up the defense. In midfield, João Neves anchored his more advanced teammates, Désiré Doué and Dro Fernández. On the wings, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola, with Ousmane Dembélé as the nominal number nine. 

Lens impress 

The tactical battle between Sage and Luis Enrique was always going to be played out with certain themes. These are two managers who rarely deviate wildly from their idealized vision for how they want their teams to attack and defend. PSG would try to control possession (ending the game with 62%), while Lens would focus their attention on hitting their guests in transition. 

Lens set out to defend from a 5-2-3 medium block with a hybrid pressing structure, triggered predominantly when PSG built from goal kicks or were funneled into wide spaces within their own half. When that occurred, Lens would move into a man-oriented system that looked to quickly close Les Parisiens down and force them into turnovers. 

In this system, the ball-side wing-back was tasked with an aggressive role where they would frequently jump out of the defensive line and apply wide pressure, often on the ball receiver, either to harry them or to intercept the pass and kickstart the counter. This wasn’t particularly unusual from Lens; they’ve built their success this season on this out-of-possession approach. And it would cause PSG troubles early in the game, as Lens raced down the wings to deliver crosses into the box. 

Similarly, Lens’s readiness to counterpress high up the pitch and win back possession before hitting Les Parisiens in transition was a cause for concern. There were chances aplenty for Lens on the counter, but each time they pulled the trigger and released their shot, Safonov was waiting to deny them the chance to pull ahead and put some spice into the title race. 

10th minute: Lens’s hybrid press. They set up in a 5-2-3 medium block. PSG shift the ball wide and trigger the press. Lens go man-to-man across the pitch. Hernandez is originally positioned in the grey pocket of space. Aguilar moves between Hernandez and Kvaratskhelia. The PSG left back makes a run into Lens’s half to create a marking issue for Aguilar. Ganiou jumps wide to free Aguilar in time for the interception. 

PSG against the run of play

In possession, PSG were their usual amorphous shape, with players rotating positions fluidly. However, they struggled to find their usual rhythm. They saw plenty of the ball for large swathes of the game, but rarely did much with it. There were, of course, moments when the great Parisian beast clicked into gear, and the fluid movements and quick one-touch passes tore open Lens’s hybrid press, but they were too far and too few to matter. 

12th minute: PSG offensive sequence. Zabarnyi plays the ball into a pocket of space for Barcola to drop into. Les Parisiens trigger Lens’s press. Fernández and Mayulu shift into close passing lanes. Lens’ defensive efforts are all over the place in this sequence. Sarr follows Mayulu at first, but then jumps onto Barcola when Udol was following him, forcing the wing-back to swap assignments. Thomasson was slow to jump onto Fernández, allowing him to be free for Barcola. 

What would instead matter was their willingness to press high up the pitch and keep Lens’s defense under pressure by closing down passing lanes whenever they had the ball. It was through this that PSG would stun their hosts in the 29th minute, completely against the run of play. 

Lens were put under pressure from a throw-in within their own half as they tried to play through PSG. After a contested sequence, the ball was eventually worked to Sarr, who was closed down and forced into a turnover by Dembélé. The forward then flicked the ball over the top to Kvaratskhelia, who beat Risser in the one-versus-one. 

A similar instance would happen again before the half-time break when Sarr was once more caught out on the ball following a throw-in. This time, he received the ball directly from the set-piece. He dallied in possession with a poor bit of control, allowing Barcola to slip forward and intercept his telegraphed pass. The winger found Dembélé in the box, but Dembélé stumbled and was caught off-balance as he took his shot. The pace was stripped away, allowing Risser to get down for a finger-tip save. 

Safonov wins the duel with Sima 

Luis Enrique had seen enough at half-time, and the decision to rest Vitinha was reversed. The midfield maestro was brought on for Barcola, which allowed for Doué to take up his position on the right of the attack. Despite the change in personnel, the shadow of the first half still loomed over the second. 

Lens pressed high and forced an error of Beraldo, and then hit Les Parisiens in transition before they had a chance to recover. Édouard played the ball into the box for Sima, and the winger only needed to place his shot either side of Safonov, but hit it towards the goalkeeper to give up a golden chance to go level. 

It simply wasn’t to be Sima’s night as he toiled against the Russian keeper. In the 54th minute, Lens managed to play through the PSG pressure and release Sima past the high defensive line. His run into the box promised to deliver the equalizer, but again, he could only fire straight into the keeper. 

Minutes later, disaster would strike Lens as Baidoo went down injured. The center-back has been a key piece to the defense since joining in the summer, and only recently returned from a hamstring injury. He was swapped for Kyllian Antonio, while Saïd and Édouard were replaced by Allan Saint-Maximin and Florian Thauvin. Luis Enrique also took the opportunity to freshen up his team with Fabián Ruiz replacing Hernandez. 

PSG against the run of play (ii)

Luis Enrique’s substitution was the more unorthodox of the two managers. With Ruiz entering the fray, they no longer had a recognized fullback on the pitch, which meant João Neves dropped into the left-back role. This decision was perhaps behind why Thauvin and Saint-Maximin swapped wings shortly after they came on, with Thauvin drifting out to the left and Saint-Maximin on the right, so he could run at Neves. 

The rotation between the two wingers looked to open up the game down PSG’s left, with Saint-Maximin’s positioning causing a threat for a makeshift defense. The winger, on a couple of occasions, was able to open up space for a crossing opportunity, but his delivery was never able to find his teammate and punish PSG’s laxness at the back. 

After around ten minutes, the experiment was ended as the two Lens wingers rotated back to their usual sides. And not long after that, Neves was swapped for the 19-year-old Dimitri Lucea, on for his professional debut. Lens carried on wracking up chances, while PSG stalled for much of the second half. But it was the visitors who would find the back of the net again, as they did what Lens had failed to do: score on the counter. 

Following a Lens attack, PSG sprang forward, with Mayulu and Doué combining. Mayulu would receive the ball in the box from a 1-2 and slam home his shot off the crossbar and in to put the title well and truly to bed in the third minute of injury time. 

Takeaways

Lens came into this game knowing that it would take something very special to unseat PSG. Mathematically, they weren’t out of the race, and they certainly played as if they wanted to push Les Parisiens until the final day of the season, but their finishing simply wasn’t good enough. They won’t be too depressed. They’ve qualified for the Champions League and are favorites for the Coupe de France, where they will take on struggling OGC Nice. 

It was business as usual for PSG as they won their fifth Ligue 1 title in a row. With the silverware wrapped up, it’ll be difficult to see Luis Enrique chancing the fate of any of his key players in the Paris Derby on Sunday. Especially when the Champions League final sits on the horizon. 

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