Paris Saint-Germain suffered a first defeat since March as the French champion lost 3-1 against Lens on New Year’s Day.
French league leader Paris Saint-Germain crumbled under pressure to lose 3-1 at Lens for its first defeat of the season as second-place Lens cut the gap to four points and maintained its perfect home record. Ligue 1’s second-placed side gave Christophe Galtier’s men an overdue wake-up call.
“I struggled to recognize my team,” Galtier said after the match. “We lacked cohesion, and we fell apart as the game wore on which opened up spaces. It was the opposite of what we should have done. We were technically wasteful and Lens really pressed us. We were also beaten in an athletic sense.”
“Lens played really well and deserved to win,” added Vitinha. “We wanted to remain unbeaten, but we failed. We will remember this game and try to improve upon it. It is hard to explain what happened, but the first goal and the atmosphere perhaps got to us. Lens understood the game better and performed better.”
After the game, Lens defender Facundo Medina quoted the absence of one player as a major reason behind the result going in his team’s favor.
“I don’t like talking about the rival, but they were missing the best player in the world,” Medina said. “Do you still have doubts that Messi’s the best? We have to enjoy him.”
“They were missing Neymar too of course, but we try to look at our tools and from there try to make our game, beyond which player is in front of us. Today it was like that, and I hope we continue this way,” he said
