Lens 0 : 1 Saint-Etienne - Lemoine fires St Etienne to victory

Posted Monday, September 22, 2014 by PA

Fabien Lemoine's 81st-minute goal earned St Etienne a 1-0 win at Lens on Sunday which moved them joint top of Ligue 1.

The visitors were second best in the first half and lived dangerously at times, but grew into the match and finished it by far the stronger.

With time running out Lemoine proved the finishing touch to a flowing team move to settle the match.

Victory, St Etienne's second straight 1-0 win, moved them level on points with Bordeaux and Marseille at the top of the standings with 13 points from six games.

It could have been very different, though, with Lens wasting a golden chance to take the lead in the 12th minute.

Yoann Touzghar got in behind the St Etienne defence, rounded goalkeeper Stephane Ruffier and rolled the ball toward the empty net, but Florentin Pogba got back superbly to clear off the line.

Ruffier then came to his side's rescue with a smart stop to keep out Adamo Coulibaly's well-struck effort from the edge of the area.

Lens continued to press and Ludovic Baal almost caught out Ruffier with a cross which threatened to drop under the bar, but the keeper was alert to the danger.

The visitors finally showed some attacking intent in the 34th minute as Max Gradel's free-kick picked out Mevlut Erding, whose header was brilliantly saved by Remy Riou.

St Etienne grew more into the game after the break and Franck Tabanou showed great control before letting fly with a powerful shot which was deflected on to a post.

At the other end Loick Landre's shot was way out was comfortably dealt with by Ruffier.

St Etienne broke the deadlock nine minutes from time following a fine team move.

Renaud Cohade combined well with Ricky van Wolfswinkel, who picked out Lemoine to apply the finish.

The visitors almost made it two two minutes from time when Van Wolfswinkel picked out Gradel, who made ground down the left before firing narrowly wide, but in the end one proved enough.