Lens finish with ten men and no goals as Lorient win 0-1 through M. Koné

Lens had the ball, the territory and more than double Lorient's shot count. What they did not have was a goal, and by the end they did not have eleven men either.

M. Koné scored the only goal of the game at 54', turning one of Lorient's eight shots into three points. Lens pushed for an equaliser and instead saw S. Sagnan sent off in stoppage time, closing out a frustrating night at Bollaert-Delelis.

Lens: three matches, one different script each time

Lens arrived off two very different results. Matchday 1 brought a 5-2 win over ten-man Auxerre at Bollaert-Delelis, driven by two Florian Thauvin penalties and four goals inside the last twenty minutes of the second half. Matchday 2 brought a 2-1 loss at Strasbourg, where Thauvin's spot-kick was reported in match coverage as his 100th career Ligue 1 goal, only for Gessime Yassine to score twice after the break and send Lens home with nothing.

Here there was no such swing either way. Lens had 17 shots and 57.4% of the ball against Lorient and still finished without a goal for the first time this season, adding a stoppage-time red card for S. Sagnan to a night that had already gone the visitors' way.

Territory, no end product

Lens had 57.4% of possession and 17 shots to Lorient's 8, but only 6 were on target against Lorient's 3. It was the kind of game where the shot count flatters the losing side.

Lens also committed 18 fouls to Lorient's 6, three times as many, and Sagnan's dismissal was the first red card shown to a Lens player this season — the only other sending-off involving either club so far was Auxerre's Christ Makosso, dismissed in Lens's matchday 1 win.

Lorient find their first win

Lorient had opened the season with a goalless draw at Nice, Alexandre Dujeux's first match in charge producing four big chances and no goals against a Nice side also starting a new era under Olivier Pantaloni. Matchday 2 was worse: 67% of the possession and 15 shots at home to Troyes, beaten 1-2 by a Renaud Ripart penalty and a Lucas Maronnier goal inside the first 38 minutes.

At Bollaert-Delelis, Lorient needed far less to win. M. Koné's 54th-minute finish came from only eight shots and 42.6% of the ball — the most economical of Lorient's three matchdays, and the first three points of Dujeux's spell in charge. It was also a reversal for the scorer: this site's coverage of the opening weekend had Mamadou Koné missing the clearest chance of Lorient's 0-0 with Nice, unmarked and unable to get anything on Gabin Bernardeau's cross. This time the finish went in.

Match facts

• 54' — M. Koné (Lorient)
• 90+2' — S. Sagnan sent off (Lens)

What's next

Lens stay 10th on 3 points after the defeat, with a record of one win and two losses and a goal difference of +1 built almost entirely on the Auxerre rout. Lorient move to 8th on 4 points from one win, one draw and one loss, a goal difference of exactly zero, both sides mid-table ahead of Matchday 4.