PSG is still without a win through the first two matches of the 2023-24 Ligue 1 campaign, and the defending champion needs to beat a bogey team to finally get a victory on board in the third round as Lens visits Paris on Saturday.
The Parisians have beaten Lens just once in the past four head-to-head meetings. Can they improve the record on Saturday? Bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 1.53 for a PSG win. The odds are at 2.37 for Lens to once again avoid defeat in the fixture.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: August 25th, 8:30 A.M. (EST)
PSG opened the season with a 0-0 draw at home versus Lorient and couldn’t put Toulouse away a week ago despite Kylian Mbappe making a scoring return to the team. Dating back to last season, the 11-time French champion is now without a win in four consecutive league outings, which marks the team’s worst such spell since 2018. The club has endured a longer run without a win just once during the QSI era, and some serious crisis talks could be on order if Luis Enrique can’t inspire his side to victory against Lens.
Losing Lionel Messi and Neymar is a tough blow for PSG, but the team should still be able to score for fun as long as Mbappe is on the pitch. The French ace boasts an incredible Ligue record, having scored 165 times in 218 outings while recording 67 assists. Lens has limited him to only one goal in four matches, but Mbappe did register a goal and assist in the last meeting between the two sides when PSG celebrated a 3-1 home victory in April.
Following the defeat at Parc des Princes, Lens won all of its final seven Ligue 1 games last season to secure a second-place finish behind PSG. It’s the highest finish in the top flight for the club in 21 years, and there was definitely a lot of excitement around Stade Bollaert-Delelis ahead of the new campaign. However, Lens has come stumbling out of the blocks.
Franck Haise’s men blew a two-goal lead and took a 3-2 defeat at Brest in the opening round and settled for a 1-1 draw with Rennes in their first home game of the season, also throwing away a lead in the contest. Defensively tighter and more concentrated efforts are needed for the team to get back to the performance levels of last season. There definitely won’t be any room for errors on Saturday against a top-class side like PSG.
