Ligue 1 2020/21: Lille vs Lens

Le Derby du Nord took place on Sunday as Lille hosted Lens at Stade Pierre Mauroy in a clash between two of Ligue 1’s in-form sides for the start of the 2020/21 campaign. Just one point separated these two going into Sunday’s clash.

Lille came away with all of the spoils as they claimed a dominant 4-0 victory over local rivals Lens, extending their unbeaten run for the 2020/21 Ligue 1 campaign to seven games and giving them a two-point lead at the top of the table over second-placed PSG and third-placed Rennes, who will be hoping to secure a UEFA Champions League place for a second-straight season this term. Meanwhile, Lens dropped to fifth place on the league table following Sunday’s defeat, which is a position they would likely have taken heading into the season, given they only achieved promotion from Ligue 2 last term.

In this tactical analysis piece, we will look at the tactics that were used by both of these sides in last Sunday’s Ligue 1 encounter. We will determine how Christophe Galtier’s tactics helped his team to overcome Franck Haise’s in-form newly-promoted side and we will provide some tactical analysis of both these teams’ main strengths and weaknesses from Sunday’s game.

Lineups and formations

Starting with the home side, Galtier lined his Lille side up in their usual 4-4-2 shape for this game. Mike Maignan started between the sticks and in front of him sat a back four consisting of right-back Mehmet Zeki Çelik, left-back Domagoj Bradarić and the centre-back duo of Sven Botman and José Fonte.

Renato Sanches and Benjamin André started in central midfield for Les Dogues in this one, while Jonathan Bamba started on the left-wing and Luiz Araújo started on the right-wing. Meanwhile, the strike duo of Burak Yılmaz and Jonathan David rounded out this Lille starting XI.