Even the broadcaster found himself taken aback! On fire on the lawn of Clermont, Sunday in match of the 27th day of Ligue 1, the rocket Loïs Openda flew away at lightning speed towards the fastest hat-trick of the last 50 years, and perhaps even in the history of the French Championship.
Aligned at the forefront of the RC Lens attack, laid out in a 4-2-3-1 formation, the 23-year-old Belgian international scored a hat-trick – three goals in a row, without an opposing player or a teammate has scored in the meantime – in less than five minutes. Explosive.
And to think that he had been moulted for more than two months…
We play the 31st minute when Openda strikes for the first time: launched in depth by Angelo Fulgini, he first slips the ball between the legs of Mory Diaw (31st). Adrien Thomasson then took advantage of Maxime Gonalons’ slip to serve his number 11 on a set, double scorer with a cross shot (34th). Openda entered the history of Ligue 1 in stride by hooking Diaw to score a third time, in the empty goal (35th).
His 10th, 11th and 12th goals of the season were scored in record time: according to our timing, it was 3′25″ between first and second goal, then barely 1′04″ between second and the third, which took Prime Video by surprise, still in full broadcast of the replays of the second goal when the third was scored…
It therefore took 4′30″ for the Belgian to play a very bad joke against Clermont, and do better than Matt Moussilou, who had scored three times in 4′43″ with LOSC, in April 2005, against Istres (8- 0). Loïs Openda had been silent for more than two months, and a Ligue 1 match against Strasbourg on January 11. What a thundering way to regain its effectiveness. In the end, Lens won 4-0, with a goal from Alexis Claude-Maurice in the second half, and consolidates its third place in the standings.
“There have always been attackers who don’t score in one period. Lois is a striker who knows how to score, he has that in him. It’s good that it happened this afternoon and even more so, greeted his coach Franck Haise. After ten matches without scoring, we are not going to be choosy about his irregularity in stringing together goals. Matches are never perfect like a player’s performance but it went well. I am happy for the team that it is rewarded outside where it is never easy. »