Recap: ASSE Fall to Nice; Le Havre Have Comeback Win Over Lens

Saturday featured two exciting Ligue 1 McDonald's matches as OGC Nice went on the road to beat AS Saint-Étienne, while Le Havre came from behind twice to earn an away win over RC Lens. Here's a recap of all the action.

OGC Nice 3-1 AS Saint-Étienne

Nice opened up the scoring at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard thanks to a goal from Pablo Rosario in the 10th minute. Gautier Larsonneur saved a shot from Jonathan Clauss, but Rosario quickly followed up and scored with a header off the crossbar.

ASSE leveled the contest in the 32nd minute courtesy of a goal from Lucas Stassin. The home side executed the goal perfectly, with a brilliant team play that was finished off by Stassin, who calmly side-footed the ball into the empty net after Marcin Bułka came off his line.

Saint-Étienne was looking to snap their winless streak, and the Stassin goal gave Les Verts the momentum heading into halftime. Despite the goal to tie the contest, Nice broke the hearts of the home supporters with an impressive second half to leave with all three points.

In the 52nd minute, Mickaël Nadé scored an own goal as the Saint-Étienne defender, in a duel, tried to clear Clauss' cross, but the ball went in the wrong direction.

Nice sealed the win in the 69th minute when Mohamed-Ali Cho played a ball to Evann Guessand in the box. The Ivorian fired a low shot without control, sending it past Larsonneur, allowing Le Gym to walk away with a 3-1 victory.

The Stat: 46

Nice have 46 points from 24 Ligue 1 matches this season, their best total at this stage since the 2016-17 season under Lucien Favre, when they had 52 points and finished third.

Le Havre 4-3 RC Lens

In a thrilling back-and-forth match between Lens and Le Havre at Stade Bollaert-Delelis, it was the home side who got on the scoreboard early and set the tone for the goal-scoring fest.

After Le Club Doyen conceded a penalty kick in the first minute, Lens took a 1-0 lead following the conversion of Neil El Aynaoui in the third minute.

On the second goal, Deiver Machado set up Ruben Aguilar, with the right-back making a run into the box and finishing with a first-time shot at the penalty spot. Mathieu Gorgelin was unable to stop it, and it was 2-0 after just 20 minutes.

Despite being down two goals, Le Havre fought to stay in this match. In the 28th minute, the away side cut the deficit to one goal after André Ayew passed to Issa Soumaré, who made a quick move and fired a shot into the near post, beating Mathew Ryan.

The game-tying goal from Le Havre came five minutes later after Lens failed to clear an aerial ball, and Soumaré headed it to Ayew, who scored with a perfect header past Ryan, who was slow to react.

After four goals in the first half, these two provided even more dramatic moments in the final 45 minutes. The Sang et Or seemed to be asleep after the two goals from Le Havre but regained their lead.

Aguilar made a run and tried to catch Gorgelin off guard, and Machado delivered a cross from the left. Florian Sotoca headed it past the goalkeeper to make it 3-2 for Lens.

Even though Le Havre gave up the goal, they again showed fight under adversity. Following a cross came in from the left, leading to a chaotic scramble in the box, and Josué Casimir managed to force the ball over the line with a bit of help from the crossbar to level it three-all.

It seemed the contest was heading toward an entertaining draw, but Lens conceded a penalty late in the second half, opening the door for Le Havre to pull off the impressive comeback. Ahmed Mahgoub stepped into the box and converted the shot to give the visitors the 4-3 win.

The victory also helps Le Havre climb out of the direct relegation zone, moving them up to 16th place, the playoff relegation spot.

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