Recap: Louis Leroux scores first senior goal in Nantes win over Lens (3-1)

FC Nantes claimed their fifth win of the season to rise to 14th place in the Ligue 1 McDonald's standings and five points away from the relegation play-off zone. 

FC Nantes managed to see off Racing Club de Lens to claim their fifth win of the season and steer themselves further away from trouble and up to 14th in the Ligue 1 Mcdonald's table. The visitors would finish the match with 10-men following M'Bala Nzola's sending off on the 70th minute, preceding the Sang & Or's third straight defeat this month in the league.

Louis Leroux, remember the name

19-year-old Louis Leroux got off the mark with his first professional goal for Les Canaris, when Moses Simon's cross into the box caused chaos for the Lens defence, and Douglas Augusto's header was saved by Matty Ryan before the ball dropped to Leroux who simply drilled the ball home from the 6-yard box (36'). Les Canaris got the perfect chance to double their lead when Jean-Charles Castelletto's shot on goal struck the hand of Malang Sarr, and the referee pointed for a penalty after consulting his pitchside VAR monitor.

None other than Moses Simon would step up to convert the penalty in the second half, for his sixth goal in Canaris colours this season for Nantes (60'). Yet, there were signs of a comeback for the away side, after another handball offense was looked at by VAR, this time by Castelletto in a collision with Lens striker N'zola and fellow defender Nicolas Pallois. This time Neil El Aynaoui stepped up to drill the ball past Anthony Lopes to halve the deficit for Lens. If the Sang & Or had a renewed vigour to try and get a potential equaliser, they would be quickly perturbed by the sending off of M'Bala Nzola for committing a foul and then throwing the ball in the direction of the referee Jérémy Brisard (70')

Then in stoppage time, the hosts would land the final blow on their Lensois opponents. This time Meschack Elia was on hand to tap in a low cross from Francis Coquelin in the dying minutes of injury time to wrap up an eventful afternoon at Stade de la Beaujoire and help edge Nantes closer to safety.

THE STAT: 13 years and 270 days

Nantes’ Francis Coquelin, who delivered his second assist in Ligue 1 McDonald's, played his first L1 game since 29 May 2011 (with Lorient v Auxerre), i.e. 13 years and 270 days, second longest gap between two matches for a player in the top-flight since 1947-48 after Samuel Lobé (14 years and 79 days between January 1986 and April 2000).

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