Ligue 1 round-up: 5ième Journée

Marseille march on as Norwich falter

This weekend saw contrasting fortunes for my two clubs. Norwich can’t buy a win for love nor money as they played out a boring nil-nil draw, which included probably the worst second half I’ve ever I seen - long ball after long ball, but what else can you expect when you’re playing long ball specialists, West Ham. I will be making the long trip up to St. James Park next weekend and I’d bet my student loan that we wont be getting three points there. So the wait for three points looks set to continue for a few more weeks at least.... In stark contrast Marseille can’t stop wining as they made it five from five away at AS Nancy. Marseille were dominant for large periods as Valbuena pulled all the strings against a lacklustre Nancy side. Marseille will now be looking to make it 6 wins from 6 next weekend - the last time that happened was when Elie Baup was in charge of Bordeaux. Bordeaux went on to win the league in that same year, so the omens are good for the l’OM. 

J. Ayew grabs the winner

Lyon, PSG, Lorient and Bordeaux remain unbeaten

Marseille aren’t the only team to have made an impressive start to the campaign. Lyon have dropped just two points this season, as they ran out comfortable winners at home to Ajaccio. Bordeaux extended their unbeaten run  to 13 games as they earned a hard-fought point away at Valenciennes. But 4 draws from 5 may be slight cause for concern for les Girondins. The PSG machine looks like it has slowly rolled into motion as they produced another impressive performance to beat Toulouse 2-0 - Ibrahimovic making it 5 goals from 3 games....the least said about that the better. Lorient have been the big surprise so far this season and they moved up to third place with a 2-1 win away Rennes in an ill-tempered Breton derby that saw three red cards. But what a player they have in Alain Traoré, he now has four goals for the season, and the two he scored this weekend were world class....okay maybe not world class, but check them out below, they ain’t half bad..

Traoré with two stunning strikes

Shocks of the weekend 

I’m not sure if we can include Montpellier dropping points as a shock anymore, as they’ve only one win to their name all season. Despite their poor start you would still expect the defending champions to have got something from a game against newly promoted Reims..but no they were comprehensively beaten by a stylish Reims side. I maintain that Herrera is dreadful and after Arsenal’s 6-1 demolition of Southampton I really do fear for Montpellier in their Champions League opener against the gunners. But probably the biggest shock of the weekend was St. Etienne’s home defeat to Sochaux. Before the weekend Sochaux had failed to pick up points in all of their previous 4 fixtures and this game looked a formality on paper. But a combination of some heroic goal keeping and St. Etienne being forced to play 80 minutes of football with 10 men helped the Peugeot based club to scrape their first points of the season.

Pouplin was the hero for Sochaux

Elsewhere Lille dropped more points as they were held 1-1 at new boys Troyes and Nice continued their quiet rise up the table with a 4-2 win over Brest. And finally new Evian coach Pascal Dupraz got off to a winning start with a 3-0 win at home to Bastia 

Week 5

 Paris Saint-Germain 2 - 0 Toulouse FC 

  Stade de Reims 3 - 1 Montpellier Hérault SC 

  Valenciennes FC 0 - 0 Girondins de Bordeaux 

  OGC Nice 4 - 2 Stade Brestois 29 

 AS Saint-Etienne 0 - 1 FC Sochaux-Montbéliard 

  Evian TG FC 3 - 0 SC Bastia 

  Stade Rennais FC 1 - 2 FC Lorient 

  ESTAC Troyes1 - 1 LOSC Lille Métropole 

  Olympique Lyonnais 2 - 0 AC Ajaccio 

  AS Nancy Lorraine 0 - 1 Olympique de Marseille 

Ligue 1 - 2ème Journée

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Those more observant will have noticed the phrase at the top of this blog’s page; "French football with an English twist", what this basically means is that every now and again I will be writing a few lines venting my frustrations about Norwich City. This weekend marked the opening day of the Premier League season, and every year at this point I’m filled with hope and excitement for the season ahead. This hope was dully crushed by Fulham of all teams, as Norwich slumped to a 5-0 defeat. We were truly awful, abysmal even, managing just two shots on target all game. I don't know what Hughton has been doing all pre-season but the whole team looked like they were still on holiday and this season looks over before its even started. Yes I’m a massive pessimist but I think relegation is very much on the cards. Right, rant over and time to look at the results on the sunnier side of the channel.

It is only fair to start the round-up at Lille as they marked a momentous moment in their history with the opening of their magnificent new stadium, the Grand Stade Lille Metropole. The 50,000 seater stadium is state of the art and boasts the first retractable roof in France and Lille finally have a stadium worthy of their ambitions. Unfortunately Lille were unable to christen the stadium with a victory as they were held to a one all draw by a plucky AS Nancy side, ex Chelsea star Salomon Kalou grabbing the equaliser for the les Lillois.

Highlights:

Lyon however made easy work of newly promoted side Troyes. A brace from Gomis helped Lyon on their way to a thumping 4-1 victory, but the goal of the game came from Brazilian Michel Bastos who scored a spectacular overhead kick from the edge of the area. That’s two wins out of two for Lyon, the only negative coming as Gourcuff limped off early in the first half.

Bastos' spectacular overhead kick:

Defending champions Montpellier are having a nightmare start to their season, as they went down 2-1 away at Lorient. In fact they led for most of the game after Herrera opened the scoring in the 36th minute, but they never looked comfortable and Lorient dominated for large periods of the match. Lorient were finally rewarded with two goals in stoppage time sealing an astonishing comeback. It was that man Jérémie Aliadière again who got the winner. That’s two goals in two games for him now and Lorient have taken 4 points from PSG and from the reigning champions.

Highlights:

So what of PSG? Well they failed to win again! They were held to an nil-nil draw away at Ajaccio which saw Lavezzi sent off and Ancelotti sent to the stands. PSG were without Ibrahimovic but even with all their other talents they never really threatened apart from Menez missing an absolute sitter from 4 yards out. I know its early days but could PSG be over reliant on Ibra? One man team….surely not.

Marseille moved four points clear of bitter rivals PSG with a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Sochaux. This game was postponed by three hours to avoid the intense Mediterranean heat!  If only England suffered from the same problem. But when the game finally got underway the OM were far too strong for Sochaux and goals from Gignac and Fanni sealed the three points. I’ve been really impressed with Gignac so far this season and I think he’s back to his best after the problems of last season. I’ve backed him at 22-1 to be top scorer this season….As for Sochaux that’s two defeats on the trot and next weekends game against Ligue 1 new boys Reims is a must win game.

Highlights:

Elsewhere Bordeaux extended their Ligue 1 wining streak to 8 games with a 1-0 win over Rennes and Bastia came out on top in battle of the promoted teams, beating Reims 2-1. A great start to the season for the Corsican club. Saint Etienne’s poor start to the season continued as they went down 2-1 away at Toulouse with highly rated Ben Yedder and Capoue getting the goals for Toulouse. There was also a first win for Stade Brestois and Valenciennes and Nice shared the spoils in a nil-nil draw at the Stade du Hainaut.

Ligue 1 - An introduction

 Ligue 1 - An introduction

When it comes to football the English are world renowned for their support, loyalty and passion but, and yes there is always a "but", we are however somewhat ignorant when it comes to our knowledge on foreign football. The average English football fan, myself included, will know bits and pieces about the other European leagues, normally the Spanish and Italian, but most of the other leagues are largely overlooked, in particular and somewhat surprisingly the French Ligue 1. So why is there a lack of interest in French football in the UK?

Well firstly the French teams of Ligue 1 just don’t have the financial resources that their English counterparts have, and as a result French teams have struggled in recent years in the financially lucrative Champions League, with the exception of Monaco finishing runners-up in 2004. In fact, for a nation that has reached the world cup final two times in the last 14 years, France lay claim to only one Champions League winner; Marseille, which came about way back in 1993. This has contributed to a lack of publicity of French teams in the UK compared with the Spanish, Italian and German leagues who can all boast multiple Champions League winners. This leads onto another problem; the inability to keep hold of star players. Ligue 1 has produced some exceptional talents over the years; Henry, Nasri, Benzema, Rolnaldinho, to name a few, but French teams have always struggled to hold on to their prize assets and as soon as the European giants begin to show an interest they are out of the door not long after. It is all very simple, big name players = big publicity.

 Another criticism often aimed at Ligue 1 is the support; in the 2011-12 season the average attendance in Ligue 1 was just a mere 18, 665 compared with 34, 601 in the Premier League. So yes, maybe the attendances are not the best, but I would like to put this matter straight; French football supporters are amongst the most passionate in Europe. Now, I know you will all be disagreeing with this statement but at least hear me out. After spending the last year on an Erasmus year abroad in Aix-en-Provence, I was lucky enough to watch Olympique Marseille play in two Champions League matches (Arsenal and Inter Milan) and the atmosphere at these two games was like nothing I have ever experienced in England. As a proud Norwich City fan I have experienced the highs and lows of English football, but nothing even comes close to one particular moment on a cold Wednesday night  at the Stade Velodrome; a drab match between Inter-Milan and Marseille was heading for a nil-nil draw, when in the 93rd minute Andre Ayew glanced a header home. The following scenes of jubilation were what the French call « la folie » (absolute bedlam). From that moment forth, Marseille and French football had cemented their place alongside Norwich City….well okay, just a bit below Norwich, but still this was truly an unforgettable experience.

This decision has unfortunately coincided with a down turn in fortunes for the club but it has on the other hand coincided with what looks like a revival of Ligue 1. The obvious change being the huge financial investment in PSG which has allowed them to bring in superstars such as Thiago Silva, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ezequiel Lavezzi, players that, a few years ago, Ligue 1 could only dream about. But this is not the only change taking place; more and more French players are opting to stay in France then before. Take for example, the highly sought after Marvin Martin who opted to move to Lille despite interest from abroad. Publicity of the French league is also growing with the Trophée des Champions (the equivalent of the Premier League’s Community Shield) being played in the USA for the first time. Added to this ESPN are now looking to broadcast the Ligue 1 in England. So the future is bright for French football and who knows we might be seeing a French Champions League winner in the not to distant future. Watch this space….