There’s just the one fixture being played on Friday night in the French top flight but nonetheless an important one that concerns two teams in the top five of Ligue 1 with 5th placed Lens playing host to the league leaders, Lille, at their Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
It’s been a fantastic campaign for hosts, Lens, who wouldn’t have thought in their wildest dreams at the start of the season that they’d be challenging for a place in Europe but they sit in 5th spot but having to fend off challenges from the likes of Marseille and Rennes.
Zeki Çelik 😱 ... is this even legal ? @mzekicelik17 #LOSCOGCN pic.twitter.com/6MdkLoPqOP— LOSC Lille EN (@LOSC_EN) May 3, 2021
Zeki Çelik 😱 ... is this even legal ? @mzekicelik17 #LOSCOGCN pic.twitter.com/6MdkLoPqOP
Lens’s impressive unbeaten run of 13 matches without defeat ion Ligue 1 was finally brought to an end on the weekend when they suffered a 2-1 loss away from home at PSG.
They’ll now face another tough encounter in the shape of Lille, despite holding supposed home advantage on Friday night.
The hosts are also unbeaten in their last seven matches at home but Lens have won only three of these games with wins over Dijon, Lorient and Nimes, all of whom sit in the bottom four of Ligue 1.
Lille continued their push for the Ligue 1 title with a solid 2-0 home win over Nice on the weekend but the visitors still only hold a slender one point lead over 2nd placed PSG who also won on the weekend.
Lille OSC have also produced an impressive string of results in the domestic top flight since mid-January as the visitors have suffered just the one defeat out of their last 17 matches overall, which came in the shape of a surprising 2-1 loss at home to Nimes back in March.
However, 12 wins within this 17-match stretch has helped maintain Lille’s place at the summit of Ligue 1 and form away from home has been simply excellent; 10 wins from Lille’s last 11 matches on the road underline the kind of form the visitors are in and they’ll be difficult to shift in Lens on Friday night despite being away from home.
Lille have kept no fewer than eight clean sheets in these last 11 matches on their travels and the bigger picture shows that Lille have lost just one of their last 20 games on the road.