Yassine scores twice after the break and Strasbourg turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win over Lens

Strasbourg lost their opening game 4-0 at Marseille. A week later, a goal down at home to a Lens side that had won 5-2 on matchday 1, they looked like they might not have an answer this time either.

Then Gessime Yassine scored twice in the second half. The 20-year-old had never scored for the club before Saturday. He left the Meinau with the match ball and Strasbourg with three points.

Thauvin first, from the spot

Florian Thauvin converted a 38th-minute penalty to put Lens ahead, reported in match coverage as his 100th goal in Ligue 1. Lens had started the season with a big win and carried it into the interval in front.

Yassine levelled three minutes into the second half, a strike that deflected past Robin Risser. Strasbourg had another effort ruled out for offside after a VAR check just before the hour, but kept coming.

Nanasi's cross, Yassine's volley

The winner came at 85'. Sebastian Nanasi crossed from the left and Yassine met it on the volley. Strasbourg finished with 21 shots to Lens's 14 and an expected-goals edge to match.

Match facts

• 38' — Florian Thauvin (Lens), penalty
• 48' — Gessime Yassine (Strasbourg)
• 85' — Gessime Yassine (Strasbourg), assisted by Sebastian Nanasi

Oliveira's first win, and a landmark for Thauvin

Yassine's brace was also his first goal contribution for the club he had never previously scored for, and it doubled as the first win in charge for Hugo Oliveira, appointed as Strasbourg's head coach for this season. For Lens, the defeat did not take anything away from what Thauvin achieved: his 38th-minute penalty was his 100th Ligue 1 goal, reached in his 294th appearance in the French top flight, with those goals split across three clubs — Bastia, Marseille and the captain's boyhood club, Lens.

What's next

Strasbourg had started the season bottom of the table after the loss at Marseille; this is their first point and their first win. Lens, third after their opening 5-2, lose ground. Matchday 3 lands on the weekend of 5-6 September: Strasbourg go to Troyes, Lens host Lorient.

How the weeks since played out

Strasbourg built on this result rather than treating it as a one-off. They followed it with a 6-2 win at Troyes on matchday 3, then a 1-1 draw at home to Monaco on matchday 4, before a 1-2 loss away to Paris FC on matchday 5 heading into the international break. Across five matchdays that leaves them 8th on 7 points — 2 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses — with an even goal difference at 10 scored and 10 conceded, a marked turnaround from the side that had shipped four at Marseille on the opening day.

Lens, by contrast, never found a second win to follow their 5-2 opening-day rout of Auxerre. A 0-1 home defeat to Lorient on matchday 3 was sandwiched between Champions League and domestic form, and a 2-2 draw at Le Mans on matchday 4 — Lens came back from two goals down there — was followed by a 1-2 loss at Monaco on matchday 5. That result proved costly beyond the table: head coach Dino Toppmöller was sacked afterwards, only six matches into the job across all competitions, and replaced by former Lens midfielder Yannick Cahuzac. Five matchdays in, Lens sit 15th on 4 points (1 win, 1 draw, 3 losses, 9 scored, 9 conceded) — level on points with Troyes, who currently occupy the relegation play-off spot in 16th.