Reims and Lens met for a clash between two of the strongest sides in the division who are not competing in Europe this season.
Only a point and a place separated the teams heading into this one, and the early exchanges were a testament to this.
It was an even affair, with the best chance falling to Kevin Danso, who had a snapshot that flew over the bar.
It took a brilliant finish to open the scoring, and to the delight of the Lens fans, it was Adrien Thomasson who produced it after latching onto a rebound on the edge of the area to find the bottom corner and score his second goal of the season.
Reims had been prolific in front of goal this season, scoring 20 goals in their opening 12 league games to better a record that dated back to 1977.
But here it took them a while to get going in the final third; their best chance of the first half came right at the end when a nice move culminated in Keito Nakamura forcing Brice Samba into a smart save to ensure the half ended goalless.
Lens had become an away specialist this season with only one loss in their last seven games on the road, and they put in another good performance. Especially after the restart when it took a brilliant Yehvann Diouf double-save to stop Lens from extending their lead further.
Les Sang et Or were particularly devastating on the counter-attack, and after missing an easy chance just shy of the hour mark, M'Bala Nzola made no mistake 63 minutes in when he got on the end of Angelo Fulgini’s pass to then find the bottom corner for 2-0.
Although Lens were solid for the most part, they can also count themselves lucky at how wasteful their opponents were in front of goal, highlighted by Junya Ito’s one-on-one miss that was hit straight at the grateful Samba 15 minutes from time.
After surviving that great chance for the Reims, Lens did well to calmly see out the remainder of the game, securing three points to make it two wins in their last three league games. Three points lift Lens above their defeated hosts and up to sixth in the Ligue 1 table.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Adrien Thomasson (Lens)