PSG loses 3-1 at Lens for 1st defeat; Monaco in 4th

French league leader Paris SaintGermain crumbled under pressure to lose 31 at Lens for its first defeat of the season as secondplace Lens cut the gap to four points and maintained its perfect home recordPSGs weakness against the counterattack was ruthlessly exposed by Lens The northern side scored at the start of each half and dominated the midfield battle against a rattled PSG to make it nine straight home victories for coach Franck Haises side Lens has the leagues best defense with 11 goals allowed in 17 matches compared to 13 for PSGHaise celebrated his 100th game in charge by grabbing a microphone and singing a club anthem with the jubilant fans Closely knit with its supporters Lens has strong workingclass roots from its history as a mining community and is known as Les Sang et Or The Blood and Gold for its yellow jersey and red shorts Lens won its only league title in 1998 and was a close runnerup to Lyon in 2002The first goal came in the fifth minuteLens used its strong pressing game to win the ball and moved it wide left to Florian Sotoca whose goalbound cross was palmed away by goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma only for winger Przemyslaw Frankowski to volley homeThe lead was shortlived as forward Hugo Ekitikeacute given a rare start in the absence of Neymar and Lionel Messi scored from close range three minutes later after Lens failed to deal with a cross from the rightAlso readBefore Pele 10 was just a number says Neymar of the iconPSG was without Neymar through suspension and World Cup winner Messi who is returning to training after an extended stay back home in ArgentinaPSGs weakness against rapid attacks was exposed when midfielder Seko Fofana won the ball near his own penalty area and threaded a 40meter pass to Loiumls Openda He expertly cut inside defender Marquinhos before slipping the ball under DonnarummaPSG conceded just two minutes into the second half as midfielder Fabien Ruiz lost the ball Openda backheeled it to forward Alexis ClaudeMaurice and he slotted past DonnarummaPSG star Kylian Mbappeacute was kept quiet with the leagues 13goal top scorer mustering only a speculative shot in the 60thCoach Christophe Galtiers decision to play Mbappeacute and Morocco right back Achraf Hakimi this week in backtoback games so soon after the World Cup appeared to backfire as both looked jaded Galtier said they will be rested for Fridays French Cup game at ChacircteaurouxOTHER MATCHESMonaco moved up to fourth place after winning 10 at home to Brest with Russia midfielder Alexandr Golovin scoring in the 54th minuteMonaco coach Philippe Clement made a bold choice selecting 17yearold Eliesse Ben Seghir over established striker Wissam Ben Yedder the clubs top scorer for the past three seasonsHe brought a lot of energy to the team Clement said Whats important is not a players age but what he shows on the fieldBen Seghir made a sensational league debut in midweek coming off the bench to score twice including an Mbappeacutestyle curling winner to help Monaco win 32 at AuxerreMonaco is level on points with thirdplace Marseille which plays at Montpellier on MondayLyon lost 10 at home to Clermont with midfielder Muhammed Cham scoring a penalty with three minutes left The win moved Clermont into ninth place and two points behind Lyon in eighthRockbottom Angers took a 10thminute lead through striker Abdallah Sima but Lorient equalized in the 79th when Sima turned Enzo Le Feacutees corner into his own net Le Feacutee hit the winner for 21 as Lorient moved up to sixth spotToulouse won 20 against Ajaccio with goals from Rafael Ratao and captain Brecht DejaegereSubstitute Marcus Coco scored the winner as Nantes beat Auxerre 10 to pull clear of the relegation zoneMONDAYS GAMESRennes needs a home win over Nice to move above Monaco into at least fourth place in the chase for a Europa League spotAfter a narrow 21 defeat at PSG struggling Strasbourg hosts Troyes and Lille hosts ReimsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever