I Efa, Uefa, We All Efa: Lens and PSG surprise everyone with solid wins

By: Sam | March 9th, 2007

When French fans are bummed about both their teams being eliminated in the UEFA Champions League, it’s the UEFA Cup competitors’ cue to cheer everyone up by registering hard-fought, deserved wins and boosting their odds of advancing to the quarters. Lens and PSG did just that, against the formidable Bayer Leverkusen and Benfica Lisboa, respectively.

It seems that not enough can be said about PSG’s peculiar season. They’re currently in the relegation zone in Ligue 1, but have kept up a more than stellar run in the UEFA Cup, which continued its course Thursday at Parc des Princes against Benfica. Paris looked good in the first few minutes, provoking Karagounis who was booked on six. Sakho also looked mighty fine when he tackled Derleï, who looked to be home-free. However, all this was forgotten when Simao Sambrosa thundered home a header from Nelson’s perfect cross to give the Portuguese a one-nil lead and an ever-so-important away goal.

Soon after the half-hour mark, Frau found Quim’s crossbar on a nicely hit free-kick. Looking more and more dangerous, they finally broke through via who else, Pedro Miguel Pauleta, who was playing his first match against a Portuguese side. On a tricky little cross/shot, Kalou came close to tipping the ball, but it was Pauleta who had the last touch on the ball. Kalou was once again instrumental in PSG’s comeback, when he this n’ that’d a pair of defenders and fed Frau, who this time easily slotted the second goal in. The only highlight of the second half was Landreau’s save off Miccoli. PSG go into the second leg as slight favourites, but will have to fend off the intense power of Portuguese home-field advantage.

Lens, at the other extreme of Ligue 1 and looking to tighten their grip on second place, took on Bayer Leverkusen at Felix-Bollaert. Starting slowly, the game found great pace on seventeen minutes, when Olivier Monterrubio was served on a silver platter by Hilton and proceeded to lob Adler like some sort of lob-king. Nothing else to report in the first half.

The opening minutes of the second half were something else. Charles Itandje started off rock-solid when he admirably pushed out Schneider’s free-kick. Ze Germans would make up for their missed opportunity minutes later, when Tunisian international Karim Haggui headed his ball past Itandje to tie it up. RCL were warned heavily on 65 minutes when Keita and Demont were both booked. Haggui, the potential hero for Leverkusen, was then in the middle of things again, this time for a late tackle on Cousin in the area, which merited a penalty for Lens and one hell of a red card for himself. Cousin righteously converted his penalty, and Lens was back on top. Injury time set the stage for frantic action in the Bayer area, highlighted by Adler’s beautiful save off Hilton’s header a minute from time.

Rendez-vous in the second leg, one week from now!