Franck Haise: ‘The scoreline is hard to take’

Lens surprised many when they beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Stade Bollaert back on Matchday 2, but it was a different story at the emirates on Wednesday night as Les Sang et Or shipped no fewer than five first-half goals before conceding another in the second half to clock the biggest-ever Champions League defeat by a French club.

Circumspect

“Obviously we weren’t expecting that, we were expecting something else,” said the 52-year-old in his post-match presser. “Did we have the ability and the quality to match the form we showed against them at Bollaert for a second time? That wasn’t the case, we can’t be at those heights on a regular basis. You have to accept that and acknowledge it.”

So what went wrong for this Lens side, who are on an eight-match unbeaten streak (five wins) in the league?

“Against these teams, you can’t do too much, and when you do too much, as we did tonight, you pay for it,” conceded the current UNFP Trophy holder for Ligue 1 Uber Eats Coach of the Year. “It’s part of football. The scoreline is hard to take but football allows us to play Lyon in three days’ time and in a few weeks’ time [at home to Sevilla on 12 December] to keep this third place.”

Opportunity

So it seems Haise is ready to turn the page – but also to learn the lessons and help the club grow into its European future.

“You can see that with all these matches you grow, when there are good moments but also when there are more complicated moments,” he explained. “If we can continue to do that for a club that hasn’t been in Europe for a long time, with a lot of players and a whole club that’s inexperienced at this level, if we can go and play a few more European matches, I hope we’ll do it.”

Lens now turn their attentions back to Ligue 1 Uber Eats and the visit of struggling OL to the Stade Bollaert on Saturday.