Home manager Franck Haise met his former club with current employers Nice desperate to make amends for a midweek Coupe de France exit to lower-league opposition. Lens have been solid travellers in Ligue 1 this term, with only runaway leaders and defending champions PSG beating them prior to kick-off, but a quick start from the Eaglets indicated that record was in jeopardy.
Sloppy Lens defending gifted Evann Guessand an easy finish, but what would have been his 10th league goal of the season was ruled out after a VAR review spotted a foul in the build-up.
Undeterred, the hosts kept flooding forward and were ahead moments later. A clumsy Adrien Thomasson challenge on Hicham Boudaoui in the area gave Gaetan Laborde the chance to convert a penalty, and he made no mistake, sending Hervé Koffi the wrong way from the spot.
Poor finishing at either end ensured that would be the only goal of the first half, with M'Bala Nzola firing a presentable chance to equalise over the bar before Boudaoui also blazed high over the frame of the goal to the dismay of the home support.
Clearly unhappy with his side’s first-half performance, Will Still made a double change at the break and that almost had an instant impact when one of his substitutes Jeremy Agbonifo dribbled past two defenders before stinging the palms of Marcin Bulka.
Then, to the dismay of the travelling fans, Lens' positive restart was undone by a needless Facundo Medina challenge on Mohamed-Ali Cho that earned him a second yellow card and the subsequent red. That opened the game up, and after Boudaoui’s effort was cleared off the line by Lens’ Malang Sarr, Andy Diouf almost equalised in sensational fashion from the clearance, dribbling 80 yards up the pitch before curling an effort just wide of the post.
Unsurprisingly, the open nature of the contest delivered a second goal, and it went Nice’s way as Jonathan Clauss hit the target against his former side with a wonderfully struck effort into the roof of the net from a tight angle.
The contest was realistically over from there, but the score could’ve been even worse for Lens if not for another superb Koffi save to deny Guessand in the closing stages.
Nice are now unbeaten in three regardless, and have leapt above Monaco and Lille in the race for the UEFA Champions League qualification places, while Lens sit four points adrift as their two-match winning run comes to an end.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Evann Guessand (Nice)