Lens rose to second place temporarily, enhancing its chances of participating in the European Champions League next season, with its outright victory over Monaco 3-0, on Saturday, in the thirty-second stage of the French Football Championship .

Lens raised its tally to 66 points, ahead of Marseille by two points, before the latter's meeting with Lyon outside its stadium on Sunday.
On the other hand, Monaco, which suffered its sixth loss this season, remained fourth with 61 points.

Lens, winner of 13 home matches this season, which is the best record in the five major European leagues, started the match strongly, knowing that he inflicted a severe loss on Monaco in the first leg 4-1 on August 20 at Louis II Stadium in the emirate.

Belgian striker Louis Openda, who has been in form this season, opened the scoring for Lens after 9 minutes.

Soon, Obenda himself added the second goal in the 18th minute, taking advantage of a cross pass, and his shot hit the crossbar and fell behind the line, raising his tally to 17 goals this season.

Lens almost consolidated its lead, but Ivorian midfielder Sekou Fofana's missile hit the crossbar a minute before the end of the first half.

And after the referee ruled out a goal by Adrian Thomason early in the second half for offside (49), the same player succeeded in settling the score by a large percentage in favor of Lens when he scored the third goal for him after an individual effort by Opanda (56).

Lens thus compensated for its loss in the last round against Paris Saint-Germain 1-3, and it also put an end to a series of four matches that Monaco had not suffered a loss (3 wins against one draw).
In a second match, Auxerre tied with Lille 1-1.

The stage ends on Sunday, with Reims meeting with Strasbourg, Ajaccio with Brest, Nantes with Troyes, Nice with Clermont-Ferrand, Lorient with Toulouse and Montpellier with Rennes.

Paris Saint-Germain opened the stage by defeating Angers 2-1, to get closer and closer to its eleventh title in its history.