{"id":1997,"date":"2026-04-22T15:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/?p=1997"},"modified":"2026-04-22T15:23:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:23:41","slug":"lens-cruise-past-toulouse-to-secure-french-cup-final-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/22\/lens-cruise-past-toulouse-to-secure-french-cup-final-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Lens cruise past Toulouse to secure French Cup final spot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-19.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1998\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-19.png 1000w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-19-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-19-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Chasing a historic first title, the club booked their ticket to the final with a commanding 4-1 victory in Tuesday&#8217;s semi-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pierre Sage\u2019s side now await the winner of the semi-final between Strasbourg and Nice in the showpiece event on May 22. Lens are pursuing a historic first; in its 120-year history, the club has never lifted the trophy, having finished as runners-up on three previous occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Florian Thauvin broke the deadlock by converting from the penalty spot amidst a raucous atmosphere at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, after being hauled down inside the area by Pape Demba Diop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Allan Saint-Maximin soon doubled the advantage with a clinical finish from the edge of the box. Toulouse threatened a brief fightback when Santiago Hidalgo pulled one back, pouncing on a defensive lapse from Lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Any hopes of a turnaround were swiftly extinguished as Matthieu Udol restored the two-goal cushion to make it 3-1. Adrien Thomasson then added gloss to the scoreline after the interval, rounding off an emphatic victory to secure his side&#8217;s place in the final at the legendary Stade de France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chasing a historic first title, the club booked their t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1999,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions\/1999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}