Sawt Falasteen - Lens continue winning streak, Endrick opens Lyon account in French Cup

In a match postponed from Saturday evening by a blizzard, Lens, who have never won the French Cup, rested only veteran midfielder Florian Thauvin against opponents who have won the competition twice.

Odsonne Edouard gave Lens a 22nd-minute lead but the visitors only locked up a ninth consecutive victory in all competitions with goals from Matthieu Udol in the 87th minute and Abdallah Sima in the 89th.

In the north of France, Brazilian 19-year-old Endrick tucked home a tidy poacher's finish to hand Lyon a 2-1 win at Lille on his debut.

The match started in frantic fashion as Afonso Moreira flicked a long punt forward past Lille goalkeeper Arnaud Bodart to prod Lyon into the lead 49 seconds after the referee had signalled the start of the match.

Nathan Ngoy levelled for the hosts two minutes before the half-hour after Lyon failed to clear the danger and Hakon Haraldsson took advantage to tee up the defender.

Against the run of play heading into half-time, Endrick showed why Spanish giants Real Madrid splashed out a reported 47.5 million euros ($55.9 million) for his services in 2024 as he ghosted in at the back post to clinically slot home a Corentin Tolisso flick-on and seal Lyon's place in the last 16.

Elsewhere, struggling Nice beat fellow Ligue 1 side Nantes 5-3 on penalties after their tie finished one-apiece.

Montpellier won 4-0 at Metz and Rennes beat fourth-tier Chantilly 3-1.

Le Mans advanced with a 4-1 shoot-out victory following their stalemate with Nancy.

J.Saleh--SF-PST