Lens hammer Angers 5-1 to go top of Ligue 1
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Lens' French forward Florian Thauvin is tackled by Angers' French defender Florent Hanin in their French Ligue 1 football match at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in Lens, northern France, on March 20, 2026.
PHOTO: AFP
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LENS, France – Lens forward Florian Thauvin scored one goal and created another as his side cruised to a 5-1 win over Angers at Stade Bollaert-Delelis on March 20 to move top of the Ligue 1 standings ahead of Paris St-Germain, who have two games in hand.
Lens lead the table on 59 points from 27 games, with PSG two points behind them in second, and the Parisians can go back to the top of the table with a win at Nice on March 21.
Lens, whose title hopes suffered a blow when they slumped to a 2-1 defeat at FC Lorient last weekend, took control of the game early and Thauvin opened the scoring with a neat finish in the 13th minute.
Angers, 12th in the table, were punished for giving the ball away cheaply when Thauvin played in Odsonne Edouard, who chipped the ball home to make it 2-0 in the 25th minute.
Mamadou Sangare forced a fine save from Angers keeper Oumar Pona with a left-foot strike, but the custodian could do nothing to prevent him from scoring soon afterwards, and Edouard netted his second and 12th of the season to make it 4-0 three minutes into the second half.
Angers pulled a goal back through 20-year-old forward Lanroy Machine in the 62nd minute, but the four-goal lead was restored in spectacular fashion as Angers again coughed up the ball and Matthieu Udol scored with an acrobatic volley to complete the rout. REUTERS
