Lens dismantles Lyon..3-0…Belhadj shines.

By: Jay | January 20th, 2008

And just like that, when the final whistle blew the Lensois had easlily dispatched champions Lyon in a match that was dominated from start to finish by the rejuvenated blood and gold.

And once again it was Nadir Belhadj leading the charge this time against his former mates who stupidly squandered his talents in favor of a washed up Fabio Grosso, only to later sell the Algerian off without ever giving him the opportunity to demonstrate the skills that have made him one of the most coveted fullbacks in all of France.

Oh what sweet revenge it was for the galactic man and the rest of the Lensois. Indeed, with every scintillating run or powerful tackle that Belhadj made, Grosso looked equally pathetic. Toifilou Maoulida easlily dispatching the Italian for the opening score and it was all downhill after that for Alain Perrin and the struggling Lyonnais.

Indeed, Lens gave Lyon a rough go of it in the first half and had the best chance of the opening period when Maoulida beat the offside trap to go through on goal in the 13th minute, but the striker could not lift his shot over an onrushing Gregory Coupet.

The champions threatened in spurts, the mercurial Karim Benzema had the best chances, squandering a fine opportunity in the fourth minute and slicing a strike high and wide just before the half-time.

Maoulida gave Lens a deserved lead in the 55th minute when he rose above Grosso to head Yohan Demont’s cross into the top corner. The Stade Felix Bollaert seemed to have collectively exploded at the sight of the ball floating gently past a stunned Coupet.

The Mayotte born striker could only manage a weak header when he was unmarked in the box minutes later but the much maligned Milan Bisevac made no mistake when he leapt to slice an angled header past Coupet from a 70th minute corner.

Grosso managed to save some face a bit later as he lobbed a clever shot just wide of Vedran Runje’s post and the sizzling Hatem Ben Arfa forced a strong save from Runje in the late minutes but the Lyonnais could not find a way to break through as Lens doggedly defended their lead for the first time in a long time. The excellent Sidi Keita pumped and pounded his fists as he whipped the Lens crowd into a frenzy while the nauseating Sebastien Squillaci barked at the Malian for adding to his miseries.

Kader Mangane later added the simple third and final touch in injury time when the Lensois took a quick and clever free-kick while the Lyon players were stupidly arguing a decision with the officials.

And so it goes, Lens continued a good run of form which began with last wednesday’s victory against Nancy in the league cup match.

This victory was particularly positive being that it came against champions Lyon. However, this is NOT the Lyon of the last few seasons. It is very difficult I should think, to perform on the same level with losses such as Florent Malouda, Eric Abidal, John Carew, Thiago etc, etc…

It also doesn’t help when the replacements for such luminaries include the likes of Anderson Cleber, Mathieu Bodmer, Kim Kallstrom and this recent batch which includes Cesar Delgado a Mexican league player as well as Marc Crosas a reserve at La Liga. Nevertheless, as long as the Benzema/Ben Arfa combo is in place and Sidney Govou gets back to his excellent form Lyon will probably be able to ward off a surging Bordeaux.

Meanwhile, the Lensois who suffered a calamatious transfer period of their own this past summer seems to be clicking since the debachle in Paris. It seems bringing in Druide Leclercq was a better idea than I thought.