Paris (AFP)
The autumn champion lost his property, Lens dropped 1st place in Ligue 2 by being taken 1-1 at Guingamp on Saturday for the first match of En Avant since the death of his striker Nathaël Julan in an accident the road.
At the end of a heavy atmosphere match, the midfielder Youssouf M'Changama allowed the Bretons to snatch in extremis the draw from an outside of the foot (90th) which deprives Lens (41 pts) of the head.
Before this meeting, postponed due to the accident which cost the life of the 23-year-old young man, Lorient had won 2-1 against Caen at Le Moustoir on Monday during the 20th day and therefore remains one point ahead of Racing with 42 points.
M'Changama took advantage of a deflection from the head of his defender Sikou Niakaté, who remained at the forefront after a set kick. A goal that rewards the pressure put by the Guingampais at the end of the match and punishes Lensois unable to make the break.
It had however been enough for them 20 seconds after returning from the locker room for the Sang et Or forward Gaëtan Robail to open the scoring, his 7th goal this season.
Served at the entrance to the surface by a center set back from his left piston Massadio Haïdara, Robail thought he had done the hardest in the very particular context of this meeting.
Tifo and banners were deployed in Roudourou before kick-off in tribute to Julan, whose funeral took place on Thursday in Le Havre.
"Guingamp mourns one of his own, rest in peace Nathaël", could be read on one of them.
His partners in En Avant Guingamp, some with reddened or teary eyes, all dressed in a jersey flocked with his name formed a circle during the minute of silence in his homage. Before Julan's name was chanted by the stadium throughout the match.
"Entering the field and seeing his head all over the stadium was mentally difficult," Breton striker M'Changama told BeIN Sports.
With this point Guingamp remains 5 lengths from 5th place, the last to offer a ticket for the play-offs.
© 2020 AFP