French league leader Paris Saint-Germain crumbled under pressure to lose 3-1 at Lens for their first defeat of the season on Sunday (January 1) as second-place Lens cut the gap to four points and maintained its perfect home record. PSG’s weakness against the counterattack was ruthlessly exposed by Lens. The northern side scored at the start of each half and dominated the midfield battle against a rattled PSG to make it nine straight home victories for coach Franck Haise’s side. Lens has the league’s best defense with 11 goals allowed in 17 matches, compared to 13 for PSG. Frustrated PSG coach Christophe Galtier was alarmed by the performance, saying his players did not stick to the game plan. “I struggled to recognize my team. We lacked solidarity and we got wiped out the more the game went on, leaving them far too much room,” he said. “In fact, we did the opposite of what we should have. We struggled against Lens’ pressing, we should have played more long passes to make them defend deeper. Athletically, we were dominated.”