RC Lens – OGC Nice: Lens Lift Maiden Coupe de France To Cap Magnificent Season (3-1)

The Stade de France was awash with red and yellow as Les Lensois crowded in by their numbers to watch RC Lens become Coupe de France winners. Overwhelmed in the stands, but not on the pitch, OGC Nice put on a good showing ahead of their two-legged relegation playoff with AS Saint-Étienne. 

Tactical analysis and match report by Nick Hartland.

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RC Lens might have missed out on the Ligue 1 title race, but they could still end a magnificent season with silverware. The Coupe de France represented their last shot at glory for the campaign, and they would enter the final as heavy favourites, with opponents OGC Nice mired in a relegation battle. 

Nice head coach, Claude Puel, had said as much in the build-up to this game, telling reporters, “For [Lens] it would be a mistake not to beat us.” Perhaps it was mind games from a wily and experienced head in the French game, but it wasn’t without an element of truth. Nice have been terrible and their focus was more on their upcoming relegation playoff against AS Saint-Étienne than on the final. 

Pierre Sage had rotated heavily on the weekend, but it would be back to a (near) full-strength side in his distinct 3-4-3 shape. Robin Risser started in goal with a defense consisting of Malang Sarr, Ismaëlo Ganiou, and Kyllian Antonio. Adrien Thomasson and Mamadou Sangaré formed the double pivot, which was flanked by wing-backs Matthieu Udol and Saud Abdulhamid. Up front, Allan Saint-Maximin and Florian Thauvin supported Odsonne Édouard.

Puel similarly has settled on a 3-4-3 formation. Cup keeper Maxime Dupé started ahead of Yehvann Diouf. In defense, Kojo Peprah Oppong and Antoine Mendy were on either side of Dante in his final game before retiring. Hicham Boudaoui and 17-year-old Djibril Coulibaly were in midfield, with Melvin Bard and Jonathan Clauss as wing-backs. Elye Wahi was the number nine with Sofiane Diop and Mohamed-Ali Cho on either wing. 

A plan in motion 

Coming into this game, Nice’s league form saw them lose a relegation six-pointer against AJ Auxerre and be held to a goalless stalemate by bottom-of-the-table FC Metz, so it was somewhat surprising that they started the final brightly. Since taking over in January, Puel has set his side up to be quick and vertical. Nice’s defenders frequently look to bypass the midfield by hitting long balls for their forwards to run onto. Without the ball, Puel wants his side to defend in a passive low block. However, they were forced to adapt their approach in and out of possession. 

Within a rigid 3-4-3 structure, Sage has forged a flexible Lens team. One capable of playing with possession and without it. They adapt their approach to the team they’re playing. Against Nice, the plan was to force Les Aiglons into a situation they were not prepared for, and to avoid a similar situation as when they last met on the 2nd of May, when Lens struggled to unpick Nice’s low block and were left with a 1-1 draw that did much to unravel their title challenge. 

In the opening exchanges, Nice’s defenders stuck to their initial plan, looking to feed the ball to runners in behind the Lens defense. However, they were met with a Lens side that also wanted to play similarly; Lens ideally wanted to play one to two passes before constructing a crossing opportunity. In an end-to-end game of transitions and quick attacks, Nice understood they would likely lose to a superior side, so they were forced to rapidly adapt their initial game plan and embrace their unexpected control of the ball.

3rd minute: Nice attacking sequence. A demonstration of how they wanted to approach this game before they were forced to adjust. Oppong carries the ball backwards, engaging the Lens press. He passes to Dante. The captain then launches the ball into space for Bard to run in behind the Lens backline.  

Nice escape the press

Prior to this game, Nice had registered less than 50% possession in nine of their last ten matches; they would end this game with 58%. Their adaptation to this situation wasn’t always smooth, as you might expect from a side that has shown a heavy preference to playing on the counter, and there were habitual attempts to play long verticals when the shorter option was open, but, on the whole, Nice showed more promise than Lens might have expected. 

Sage had managed to engender his ideal scenario, and he wanted his side to take advantage by putting Nice’s defense under pressure through his intense hybrid pressing structure. Lens advanced with their front three angling Nice towards one side of the pitch, where they could then launch into a very aggressive wide press. The thinking behind the plan was that Nice would make mistakes in defense when attempting to play through this pressure because they were in an unusual scenario, but it didn’t work out like that in the first half. 

Boudaoui’s positioning in midfield was crucial for Nice to find a way to escape the pressure in their build. He was constantly looking to move into an open passing lane, be it for the first or second pass. His movement, coupled with his teammates’ patience to work the ball, meant that Lens’s pressing structure was largely ineffective for much of the first half. The result was that Les Lensois became a touch more passive out of possession as the half wore on, as they found greater success defending from a medium to low block. 

21st minute: Nice build through Lens’s press. Dante passes the ball wide to Cho, engaging Lens’s wide pressure. Saint-Maximin moves to block the passing lane inside. Udol jumps to close down Cho. Thomasson is slow to close down the central inside lane. Bouadoui enters the space vacated by Saint-Maximin and becomes open for the pass. His pass to Clauss allows Nice to escape the press and switch the play away from where Lens have numbers.  

Lens’s in-possession plan earns results

Sage’s game plan in possession had far better results. Lens, as previously noted, wanted to move the ball up the field as fast as possible, regardless of whether they were playing in transition or building from deep. This was perhaps influenced by the last time they played Les Aiglons, where they were only able to break open the defense following a counterattack started from just outside their own area. It was likely why they wanted to avoid letting Nice settle into a low block and restrict the space for Lens’s runners. 

In the 25th minute, Lens opened the scoring. Lens progressed the ball gradually upfield, attempting to bait Nice into a press. When Les Aiglons didn’t peck, Risser kicked the ball long to Udol. Clauss missed his interception and was taken out of the play by Udol’s movement. The Lens wing-back advanced to near the by-line, then pulled his cross back to the edge of the box for Thauvin to collect. The France international entered a tight pocket of space and then fired a low shot past Dupé and into the back of the net. 

Lens would make it two before the end of the first half when Édouard headed home Thauvin’s corner in the 41st minute. Five minutes later, and with the last action of the first half, Nice would be rewarded for what had been a good performance when they halved the deficit. Also from a corner, Coulibaly glanced Clauss’s near-post delivery past Risser to give Les Aiglons some belief for the second half. 

25th minute: Build to Lens’s opener. Lens slowly bring the ball out of defense. There is a sense of them baiting a press, which doesn’t come. Lens go direct and switch the ball out to the left. Clauss leaps to intercept the ball, but misses his interception, freeing Udol to advance towards the byline unimpeded. 

Lens put the tie out of reach 

Nice started the second half strong, playing through the Lens mid block to release Wahi into space. The striker arrived in the box and was able to pull off his shot, forcing a save from Risser. Minutes later, a header from Mendy would force another save from the keeper. Nice were in the ascendancy, so Lens responded by slowing down the tempo, taking the sting out of the game, by controlling the ball a bit longer, leading to a period of dominance for Les Lensois. They were helped somewhat by Nice’s refusal to play it short from goal kicks, meaning they gave up a bit more control of the ball. 

A double change from both managers occurred midway through the half. Sage took off Édouard and Saint-Maximin for Abdallah Sima and Wesley Saïd, while Puel replaced Diop and Cho with Ali Abdi and Kaïl Boudache. Neither manager altered their shape with these changes, with Abdi, a defender by trade, surprisingly moving into an attacking position. Of the two managers, Puel would initially be the happier with their substitutes’ impact. 

Nice wrestled back dominance for the final thirty minutes of the game. The game state encouraged them to throw numbers forward, and they would hit the post twice before the final whistle, but against the run of play, Lens would find their third of the evening to settle the match in the 77th minute. A long kick from Sarr took an unfortunate deflection from Dante, allowing it to run on through for Sima. The striker was well marked by Mendy, but was allowed to get a small sight of the ball. He poked at the shot to put the game out of sight. 

Takeaways

As the final whistle blew, the Lens bench flooded the pitch. For the first time in their 120-year history, they had won the Coupe de France. It was a just reward for a brilliant season where they had been worthy challengers for the Ligue 1 title. This was a team that few had expected much from, but has punched above their weight and have the silverware to prove it. 

It was hard not to feel sorry for Nice amid a stadium invaded by 50,000 Lens supporters. They have been sorrowful this season, both on and off the pitch, but on the night, they gave the favorites a run for their money. They were flexible and capable and, for once, did not let their heads drop when the going got tough. If they can take this performance into their upcoming clash with Saint-Étienne, they should believe in their ability to survive the drop to Ligue 2.