Week of October 23 - 30

SCORES
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Coupe de la Ligue

October 24

Nancy 2-1 Toulouse
Le Mans 3-1 Lens
Sochaux 5-0 Dijon
Riems 0-0 Monaco (4-3 pen.)
Lille 0-2 Rennes

October 25

St. Etienne 4-1 Marseille
Auxerre 0-1 Bordeaux
Lyon 2-1 Paris SG

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Ligue 1

October 28

Bordeaux 3-1 Sedan
Le Mans 1-1 Lille
Lens 1-0 Auxerre
Lorient 1-0 Valenciennes
Nantes 1-0 Monaco
PSG 1-0 Rennes
Toulouse 1-2 Sochaux
Troyes 3-1 St. Etienne

October 29

Nice 2-1 Marseille
Lyon 1-0 Nancy

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An eventful midweek in France as the Coupe de la Ligue competition resumed. Tuesday's matches booked Nancy, Le Mans, Sochaux, Riems, and Rennes places in the Quarter-Finals on December 19th. Monaco's loss on penalties was particularly notable, as they had just sacked manager Laszlo Boloni after the weekend loss, and replaced him with his assistant Laurent Banide. Sochaux absolutely dominated Dijon and thrashed them five-nil. Also of note is the Lille - Rennes match, which saw Lille reduced to 10 men in Ninety Seventh minute, and then Rennes scoring with replacements Sow and Marveaux at '103 and '112 respectively.

On Wednesday Marseille's fortunes continued to decline as they bowed out of the cup to St. Etienne by the same 4-1 scoreline as they did on the weekend. Les Verts scored two before halftime to put an early stranglehold on the match, and it was all downhill for Marseille from there, save for the lone goal which came on a penalty courtesy of Mickaël Pagis.

Wednesday also saw Bordeaux dispatch Auxerre, edging them with a goal. Bordeaux snaps a two-match losing streak and Auxerre's fortunes continue to decline. Jean-Claude Darcheville scored the only goal for the visitors in the 23rd minute.

The marquee match of the day saw Olympique Lyonnais meet up with PSG at the Stade Gerland. Paulo Cesar struck first on a penalty in the 58th minute for PSG, but two goals by Sylvain Wiltord in the last two minutes of play sealed the deal for the home side. Lyon continues to be unstoppable, even without the bulk of their star players on the pitch.

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Bordeaux went into their match with Sedan Saturday with a 5-5 record, and were looking to improve their Ligue 1 form. Bordeaux had been struggling through the first part of the season after finishing second in the table last year, although a promising League Cup victory over the week lifted them somewhat. Sedan came in with two first team players injured and a 1-5-4 record, desperate for a win. The away side struck first, and early, but it was to no avail, as Bordeaux dominated the rest of the match, winning 3-1, and sealing the deal in the 53rd minute on a Darcheville penalty.

Le Mans and Lille faced off for with the home side needing the win to put them in the top half of the table. Lille came into the week in a healthy 5th place, but would have most likely wanted the weekend off to prepare for their Champions League away match at AEK Athens. A win in Athens would virtually guarantee Lille a place in the Final 16 of the Champions League. All the scoring in this one happened in the first 15 minutes, with Lille's Kieta scoring 4 minutes in, and Le Mans responding 9 minutes later. A stalemate result as neither team improves their domestic fortunes.

Lens continued their good form with a win against Auxerre at the Stade Felix-Bollaert. Auxerre pressed well, trying to salvage a draw after Demont scored in the 62nd minute. Unfortunately for them, the cobwebs on Lens' net remained intact, and they fell 1 goal to nothing.

Lorient played leapfrog with Valenciennes Saturday as a 1-0 home win placed them at 10th in the table. Newly promoted Lorient has little to be upset about heading into November, with their form improving. The match was uneven from the start with Lorient going down to 10 men in the 24th minute, but a goal by Rafik Saifi was enough. The field was evened out in the 67th minute as Valenciennes was red carded as well.

It was the end of a horrible week for Monaco as they were lucky to get out of Nantes only one goal down. It was a battle at the bottom of the table, with Nantes prevailing and lifting themselves out of the depths. Monaco's fortunes continue to decline, as they fired their manager earlier in the week, followed by an embarrassing cup exit at the hands of lowly Ligue 2 side Riems. Monaco also did without the services of Jan Koller, who was injured in the Riems match, and the news is that he will be out for at least six weeks. Nanes absolutely assaulted the Monaco net with a total of 26 shots, 8 of which were on goal. Monaco only managed 4 in the entire match. Final scoreline : Nantes 1-0 Monaco

PSG needed a win to lift their fortunes, and they got one at home against Rennes, winning 1-0. During the week PSG's Pierre-Alain Frau was suspended for six months for a brutal tackle on Sedan's Stephane Noro during their match on October 14th. Rennes needed another win to boost them in the table, but were unable to find it at the Parc des Princes. Another blow to PSG as striker Pauleta was shown a Red card in the 90th minute, and will miss the next match.

Sochaux was able to salvage three points out of their away match at Toulouse, keeping Sochaux at 8th in the table, and allowing Toulouse to keep a shaky hold on the 4th place spot. Toulouse scored first in the 21st minute, but a penalty taken 11 minutes later but Sochaux' Alvaro Santos gave the visitors the boost they needed, with Karim Ziana scoring the go-ahead goal, sealing the deal in the 88th minute.

Relegation zone Troyes handed St. Etienne a surprise 3-1 thrashing after St. Etienne was reduced to ten men in the 29th minute. Troyes, desperate for a win as they've had one in ten matches, now boost themselves to 16th and out of trouble for the moment. The home side took advantage of the extra man, changing tactics in the second half and popping in three goals in the space of 30 minutes.

Sunday saw two intriguing matchups played out. In Nice the Riviera derby was played out with the result delighting the home fans. Nice picked up a crucial win against second place Marseille, who also needed three points if they wanted any hope of ever catching up to Lyon. Nice sealed Marseille's fate with a well-taken penalty by Honorato Campos Ederson, and moved out of relegation territory into 17th in the table.

Lyon hosted high-flying AS Nancy-Lorraine at the Stade Gerland looking to bolster their already incredible point total, while the visitors would have been happy to get into second place in the table with a win. Nancy put up a valiant effort, but John Carew's goal in the 13th mnute was all Lyon needed. Lyon had some bad news during the week with Brazilian striker Fred's injury sidelining him for two months, although a raft of quality replacement players is always at their disposal. The 1-0 scoreline put Lyon 11 points up on Marseille, whose fortunes have waned in their last few matches, and 13 up on third place Nancy. Good news for Nancy though is that they stay in third place for this week, and have an opportunity with a win against Bordeaux next week to possibly move up.