Club Brugge beat Lens 3-0 at the Jan Breydel Stadium on Wednesday night, scoring either side of half-time and again on 72 minutes in League phase matchday 3 of the Champions League.
Goals that decided it
Hans Vanaken opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time, in the 45+3rd minute. It came moments after Lens defender Matthieu Udol had been booked at 45 minutes.
Joaquin Seys doubled the lead in the 50th minute, five minutes after the restart. That was the game effectively settled, though Brugge added a third.
Carlos Forbs scored it in the 72nd minute, with Hugo Vetlesen credited with the assist.
The match was not especially bad-tempered. Félix Lemaréchal (61') and Vetlesen (79') were booked for Brugge, while Michal Skoras (80') joined Udol in the book for Lens.
What the numbers say
The statistics do not follow the scoreline. Lens had 19 shots to Brugge's 11, with seven on target to the hosts' five. They also won the corner count 5-1 and made more fouls, 10 to 6.
Brugge had more of the ball, with 57% possession to Lens's 43%, and were far more efficient. Three of their five shots on target scored. Lens put seven on target and did not find the net, and they also had eight shots off target and four blocked.
It was Brugge's first clean sheet of the league phase and their only one so far. They had conceded three in each of their first two games, a 3-2 defeat by Aston Villa and a 4-3 win at Inter. Lens, who won 3-2 at Slavia Praha and then lost 0-2 to Sporting, have now failed to score in their last two matches and have kept no clean sheets.
Over three games, Brugge average three goals and two conceded per game, and two points per game. Lens average one goal scored and 2.33 conceded, with one point per game. There was no previous meeting between the sides in the recent records.
What it means in the table
Brugge have six points from three games, with two wins and a goal difference of plus three. That puts them 11th. The top eight go straight through to the last 16, while ninth to 24th head for the knockout play-offs, so Brugge are in the play-off places, with PSG on nine points at the top.
Lens are 27th with three points, one win and a goal difference of minus four. That leaves them outside the top 24 and with work to do. Slovan Bratislava are bottom in 36th, without a point and with a goal difference of minus 12.
MFF's match model had given Brugge a 66% chance of winning, with 16% for a draw and 18% for a Lens victory. It predicted a 2-1 home win, so it picked the right winner but missed the scoreline.
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