Coupe de France: Monaco wins in Lens after an offensive festival

Lensois and Monegasques offered great publicity for the Coupe de France this Sunday evening. After a lively, fast and extremely enjoyable match to watch, Monaco qualified for the quarter-finals. Lens can regret a huge fatal air pocket of fifteen minutes in the first period.

Monaco floated for a quarter of an hour but then it was Lens that sank before getting its head out of the water. But not enough. The start of the match proved to be quite deceptive with Lensois cornering the Monegasques on their goal. And Vito Mannone, the Italian goalkeeper of ASM, for his first appearance this season, had to slam a strike from the inevitable Seiko Fofana on his bar. But following… what a festival. On a perfect cross from Caio Henrique, Ben Yedder, with a fine header, opened the scoring (0-1, 18′). Ten minutes later, the Brazilian Jean Lucas, slightly off center and served by Gelson Martins, doubled the bet (0-2, 27th) before Sofiane Diop drove the point home once morest a powerless and dumbfounded Jean-Louis Leca (0- 3, 29e). But a two-time goal from Wesley Saïd just before the break kept the Sang et Or at a distance (1-3, 45th). And alive. After the break, electrified by this goal, the Lensois rush to attack. And the ex-Parisian Arnaud Kalimuendo, with a curled shot, brings his people to a goal (2-3, 53rd). Despite other opportunities, Lens ends up stalling. And Monaco, by dint of hunkering down, sealed their qualification at the end of the match thanks once more to Ben Yedder (2-4, 88th)

The Brazilian midfielder has proven that he is not this inconstant player to whom Lyon did not give enough time to acclimatize to Europe when OL recruited him three years ago. This Sunday, Jean Lucas offered his first goal in the red and white jersey before distilling an assist two minutes later, his second of the season, for Sofiane Diop on the third Monegasque goal.

It has now been twelve years since Monaco lost at the Félix-Bollaert stadium. The last Lensois success (3-0) at home once morest the men of the Principality dates back to February 20, 2010. The Lensois scorers were Jemaâ, Roudet and Bedimo.