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Ligue 1 action round-up - Week 8 - October 31/November 1, 2009
By Karl Sturgeon
There was an early top-of-the-league game in France on Saturday evening, as Guy Lacombe took Monaco away to last season’s title-winners Bordeaux. The team from the principality are enjoying their best start since 2003/04 - the season Didier Deschamps took them to the Champions League final - but Bordeaux have taken to being champions and have started well both domestically and in Europe. Les Girondins won the game 1-0, beating Monaco with a scrappy goal from defender Marc Planus. “In my eyes,” said Laurent Blanc, the suitably smug Bordeaux Coach, ”there’s no disputing the result.”
Monaco’s defeat gave Lyon the chance to creep into second place, and the team who recently won at Anfield took advantage, winning 1-0 in a derby game at St Etienne with a late goal from top-scorer Bafetimbi Gomis. Gomis, an ex St-Etienne player who started the game as a substitute, was booed on his return to his previous club and made a point of celebrating his goal quietly because, he said, “there are . . . plenty of players whose celebrations have got out of hand against former clubs.” If Bordeaux look like champions, Lyon look like a team who’ve shrugged after the trauma of last season’s failure to take the title - their first such letdown since 2001. Just like Bordeaux, Lyon have started well in the Champions League and the two meet a week before Christmas.
Monaco’s next opponents are poor old Grenoble. The side that play at the Stade des Alpes have a mountain to climb after losing their 11th straight league game on Saturday - a 2-0 home defeat to an improving Lille team who started poorly but have now lost only once since August. Yohan Cabaye and Gervinho scored the goals for Lille and home defender Davide Jemmali was sent off. Grenoble have taken a slump from last season - they won only two of their last 10 games - and turned it into a nosedive, threatening a slow, painful slide into Ligue 2.
Elsewhere, PSG celebrated overcoming swine flu by winning 4-1 at Sochaux. Like Lyon, with Gomis, the team from the capital had a player returning to his former club - Mevlut Erding gave his former fans something to laugh about with a first half penalty miss, but made amends by scoring his team's third goal. Auxerre beat Montpellier 2-1 in a tussle for fourth place, and there were 1-1 draws between Lens and Lorient and Marseille vs Toulouse. There were also wins for Nancy, Nice and Valenciennes.
Full results
Saturday October 31, 2009
Auxerre 2-1 Montpellier
Bordeaux 1-0 Monaco
Boulogne 1-2 Nancy
Grenoble 0-2 Lille
Lens 1-1 Lorient
Marseille 1-1 Toulouse
Saint-Etienne 0-1 Lyon
Sunday November 1, 2009
Nice 1-0 Le Mans
Rennes 0-3 Valenciennes
Sochaux 1-4 Paris Saint-Germain
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