Week of February 5 - 12

SCORES

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Ligue 1

February 10

PSG 4-2 Monaco
Auxerre 1-1 St. Etienne
Le Mans 3-2 Sedan
Lyon 1-0 Lorient
Nantes 2-5 Valenciennes
Nice 3-0 Troyes
Rennes 1-1 Nancy
Toulouse 1-0 Lille


February 11

Lens 3-1 Sochaux
Bordeaux 1-0 Marseille

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The woes of Paris St. Germain continued to compound last week when they were barely able to eke out a draw with Marseille. The result combined with Troyes' surprise win over Lyon left them in a precarious position, only one point above Nantes in 17th place. Monaco were not a team interested in dropping points anywhere, least of all to PSG. Monaco beat Auxerre last week for their second win in a row, and have been consistently on form since Mid-November. This match started brightly for the home side when Amara Diane scored just 5 minutes in to make the score 1-0. Diane created the second goal as well, a shot that was fumbled into the net by Monaco keeper Roma. The eventful first half gave way to a scrappy second, which saw the visitors get one back as Frederic Piquionne scored. Piquionne was called upon 15 minutes later to take a penalty, which was saved by PSG keeper Landreau. Minutes later PSG exploited Monaco's defensive weakness to pop in two more in the space of four minutes. Jan Koller's 87th minute strike was all that Monaco could answer with as PSG got their first win in ages, and finally get into a temporary goalscoring form. Monaco and PSG end the day in 14th and 16th respectively.

Auxerre hosted St. Etienne at the Stade Abbe-Deschamps Saturday hopeful that they could recover after losing to Monaco last week. St. Etienne, sitting in 6th, would continue to pack the top-of-the-table log jam even tighter with a win here. Their loss to Sedan last week was disastrous for morale, and that upset would require that they create something special here. Auxerre's go-to scorer Kanga Akale got his 9th of the season 19 minutes in to put the home side one-up. After defending well for most of the match, Auxerre would regret missed chances when St. Etienne broke through 15 minutes from time to pull the visitors level and finish off the scoring for the day. This one ended 1-1, with the shared points enough to move both teams up a place in the standings.

Sedan, after beating St. Etienne last week, would have some hope that they would get a result against 12th place Le Mans, despite the fact that they looked destined to be the Watford of France. Sedan, coming up from Ligue 2, have been failing to make their case to stay up, unlike their counterparts Valenciennes and Lorient. Le Mans haven't lost at home since early December, and would like to continue that trend and stay solidly mid-table. Mamadou Samassa struck early for Le Mans, but a foolhardy penalty giveaway on the part of the home side gave Sedan's Joseph-Desire Job the chance to convert. 1-1 the scoreline. Things got worse for the Ardennes side however when they were reduced to ten men in the second half, and with the extra space Le Mans was able to capitalize as Romaric Koffi and Grafite scored in the 67th and 73rd minutes respectively. Sedan midfielder Abdelnasser Ouadah scored as time expired, but it wasn't enough as the match ended 3-2 for Le Mans who now sit pretty in 8th.

Lyon, at home again after their embarrassing loss to Troyes last weekend, have had an absolutely disastrous 2007 so far. This fixture against Lorient was as tough as any, considering Lorient have been in fine form of late, and lesser teams than they have beaten Lyon this year. Lorient beat Le Mans last week by a convincing 2-0 scoreline, and had all the confidence in the world. Lyon shut down Lorient's hopes early though, with a spectacular goal from Fred only 8 minutes in. Lorient's big scorers Gignac and Ulrich Le Pen both has shots saved by Gregory Coupet over the course of the match, and Lyon held on for their first win of the new year.

Nantes, like their bottom feeding brethren, knew that by stringing a win or two together they could possibly get themselves out of danger. Sitting in 18th is no walk in the park, but leapfrogging PSG was a goal that could be achieved with a win here. Valenciennes had been a bit dire of late, and they sat in 15th, also needing to string together a result or two to take themselves into the safety zone. Nothing could have prepared anyone for this match though. The visitors started well, with Steve Savidan netting his 13th of the season early on. The rest of the first half was uneventful, but after half time, things got a bit more scrappy. Sacidan got his second of the match in the 49th minute, and then a rash challenge from Nates' Dimitri Payet saw his sent off in the 63rd minute. Savidan could not be stopped, and scored again just minutes later. Laurent Dufresne then made it 4-0 for Valenciennes not four minutes later. Nantes decided then to have a decent spell, with Claudio Keseru and Loic Guillon providing to make the score 4-2, but it was not enough, for man of the match Steve Savidan decided to get one more in the 88th minute to wrap up an exciting goalfest in Nantes. Valenciennes stay in 15th, but Nantes drop a place to 19th.

It was a battle of two minnows who fought like sharks against the top team in the country, Lyon. Nice drew Lyon two weeks ago, and beat Bordeaux last week to put them on a bit of a roll, a result that surely put them in a good frame of mind to lift themselves out out of relegation danger. Troyes beat Lyon last week to do just that. They leapfrogged PSG and saw themselves sitting in 16th on the day. Nice dominated the play on the day however, and Lillian Laslandes provides a goal on either side of the break to put Nice up 2-0. Brazilian midfielder Ederson scored his 7th of the season to make it 3-0 for Nice, and the win sees them leapfrog Nantes to place them in 18th. Troyes's loss places them back in a dangerous 17th place.

Rennes' disappointing 0-0 draw with Sochaux last week meant that they stayed in the tenth place spot after consecutive weeks of moving up the table. This home fixture would be one that could see them move as high as 7th with a win. Nancy were in some of their worst form of the season, and now sat in 8th just ahead of Bordeaux and just behind Lorient. Rennes dominated the ball in the first half, with chance after chance denied by Nancy keeper Damien Gregorini. Nancy were the first to hit the scoreboard, however, when Carlos Kim scored just after the break. Rennes were not to be denied in the second half however, and John Utaka put in his 5th of the season to draw things level as time expired. The teams share the points and now sit in 10th and 11th.

A team that had certainly dropped off form was Toulouse, who had dropped points to PSG, Troyes, and Nancy recently. Toulouse now sat in 11th, and would need to start getting results and keeping pace, especially with some of the lower-placed teams getting big wins. Lille's long journey south to Toulouse would be a test for them, sitting 1 point back of Lens in 3rd place. Lens and Lille had been leapfrogging each other the past few weeks to control 2nd place, but that only helped struggling Lyon keep their place secure at the top of the table. The squds were equally matched for the entire game, with neither team able to break through. It looked as though this one was headed to a scoreless draw when Lille's Gregory Tafforeau blundered and put the ball in the back of his own net in injury time. Ecstatic Toulouse move up to 7th, and Lille stay in third.

Lens would want all three points in their fixture against 5th place Sochaux in order to catch up with Lyon and keep their second place spot intact. Lens' 3-1 victory over Valenciennes last week was convincing, but recent history suggested that anyone could knock them off and jam the top of the table further. This was the task that 5th place Sochaux needed to accomplish if they wanted to get themselves back into the European places. Sochaux had only scored once in the past month, and that was against bottom-feeding Sedan. Lens completely dominated this game with the exception of possession. They made the best of their chances and had things wrapped up by half time with goals coming from Vitorino Hilton and Seydou Keita. High Scorer Aruna Dindane made it 3-0 in the 58th minute to make it unattainable for the visitors. Dusko Tosic's 85th minute strike was all Sochaux could muster on the day, and Lens keep second place, 14 points back of Lyon. Sochaux drop to 6th.

On again, off again Marseille sat in 4th place when they visited Bordeaux on Sunday. three points back of Lens who were in 2nd, and 14 back of 1st place Lyon. This was a team that should have mounted a challenge to Lyon's dominance this year, but had been completely anemic for most of the season. Bordeaux were suffering the fate of being unable to string together results, although their big win at the Stade Gerland three weeks ago should have helped them, they hadn't won since. An uneventful first half left things level at nil-nil, but Bordeaux finally broke through in the 74th minute when Julian Faubert scored. That was enough to get Bordeaux all three points, while Marseille hit another speed bump on the Road to Europe.

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