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 

Betting: let's make some money

111 111 111 

European round-up

This week saw three French teams in action, with Lille, Marseille, and Bordeaux all looking to book their places in Europe. Lille are hoping to join Montpellier and PSG in the Champions League group stages, but their campaign got off to the worst possible start as they lost 1-0 away at FC Copenhagen. A very disappointing result for the Lillios but they should be able to turn this round at the Grand Stade Metropole. Fingers crossed. Marseille and Bordeaux both got off to good starts in their quest for the Europa League; Bordeaux secured a 0-0 draw away at former European giants Red Star Belgrade and a double for A. Ayew was enough to give Marseille a 2-1 win away at Sheriff Tiraspol. Despite the win Marseille looked poor defensively and Baup will be hoping for an improvement before their clash with Montpellier at the weekend.

I do like to go on about Marseille's amazing fans but it looks like I might have to eat my own words....

Let's make some money....

Anyway, the main reason for this post was betting related. I wouldn’t call myself a betting man but every weekend I do like to put 1 or 2 pounds on an accumulator. I’m sure most of you know what an accumulator bet is, but for those who don’t:

 "an accumulator bet allows two or more selections to be combined into a single wager. By doing so, the successful linked selections will return higher odds than they would if they had been bet on individually."

 In simple terms it is when you place a bet on a list of results. These accumulators aren’t going to make me a millionaire but they do help spice up the weekend. In fact my record, on these accumulator bets, is pretty terrible. I think I’ve been doing them for about three years and in that time I have won a measly 30 pounds. In my defence I do like to pick some "off the wall" results which help increase the odds....but unfortunately I'm still waiting for one of these "of the wall" results to pay off.  So I thought this year I would try my luck on the French Ligue 1 and see if this will change my fortunes. Every week I will be posting my selection of results for Ligue 1, but like I said I never seem to win so please feel free to comment below with your ideas and hopefully together we can win some money. You know how the saying goes, two minds are better than one….

My bet this week:

            Nice  vs. Lille                  Draw: 17/8
Stade Reims vs. Sochaux          Reims win: 23/10

         Nancy  vs. Toulouse          Draw: 2/1

  Troyes AC   vs. Lorient             Lorient win: 9/5

  Montpellier vs. Marseille          Draw: 21/ 10

                             

                                                   Total:    173.96/1

Method in the madness

My off the wall result is a Nice Lille draw. I've gone with a draw because I think Nice will be up for this game in front of their home crowd and Lille will be tired from their mid-week CL game. I understand if you don't want to copy me on this result but I'm pretty confident about the rest; starting with Ligue 1 new boys, Stade Reims, to beat Sochaux. Why? Well I saw them at home to Marseille and I was very impressed with their performance and they were unlucky not to get a result that day. Sochaux have also been poor so far this season and I don’t think their luck will change this weekend. Nancy and Toulouse have both had solid starts so I’ve gone with a draw in this one. I fancy Lorient to beat newly promoted Troyes after their two outstanding results against Montpellier and PSG. The big game of the weekend sees Montpellier take on Marseille. Montpellier have been below par this season, whereas Marseille have two wins in two. But I can’t see Marseille wining this one away from home and after their game on Thursday night. A one pound bet could see me win 174 pounds. Let me know your thoughts before I place the bet on Saturday morning.

Ligue 1 round-up: 1ère Journée

the the the

 The Ligue 1 season finally got underway on Friday night as defending champions Montpellier took on Toulouse at the Stade de la Mosson. An uninspiring 1-1 draw was livened up by three red cards, with Toulouse finishing the match with nine men. The dismissal of Montpellier’s Saihi was their 23rd red card since their return to Ligue 1 in 2009; more than any other club. Despite all this red card drama  both teams will have been happy not to lose their opening game of the season. 

But I can happily say that the real drama of the weekend took place in Paris, as red hot favourites PSG slipped up on day 1!! I promise I’m not gloating….much. Lorient, who avoided the drop by one point last season, raced into a two-nil before half time. If anyone was wondering where ex-Arsenal and Sunderland forward Jérémie Aliadière was these days, well he was scoring the second goal at the Parc des Princes.   Aliadière scoring?!? Crazy I know. Unfortunately, Lorient couldn’t hold on as a brace from Ibrahimovic salvaged a point for Les Parisiens. But Ligue 1 can take heart that PSG do look beatable, especially in defence where they looked very vulnerable. The only worrying sign is that Ibra has already found his scoring boots. 

By contrast the mighty Marseille opened up their season with a 1-0 win away at Reims, who were celebrating their return to Ligue 1 after a 33 year absence. In fairness Reims were slightly unlucky as Mandanda was at his brilliant best to keep Marseille on level terms when Ghilas found Madanda’s outstretched leg with the goal gaping. Top flight football is all about taking your chances and Reims were taught a lesson when Be. Cheyrou buried a brilliant far post volley. The last time Marseille won their opening game of the season in 2009 they went on to win the league. But worrying times still lie ahead for the OM as they desperately try to reduce their wage bill and the following weeks could see the departure of Cesar Azpilicueta, Stephane Mbia, Loic Remy and Andre Ayew. 

 Check out Cheyrou's cracking volley and the other top 10 goals of the weekend:

The other two promoted teams suffered contrasting results, as Corsican side Bastia overcame a seven hour delayed journey to beat Sochaux 3-2 in a thoroughly entertaining game. A brace from Maoulida takes him to the top of the scoring chart along side Ibrahimovic. Troyes however will be disappointed to have lost their opening home game (1-0) to Valenciennes.

The other results saw away wins for Bordeaux, AC Ajaccio, Brest, Lille and Lyon. Lille will be very happy to have opened up a two point lead on PSG but they left it very late against Saint-Etienne, Pedretti scoring the winner in the 90th minute.

The opening day of the season saw 6 red cards, 7 away wins and PSG going 2 goals down at home, not too bad if you ask me…..over to you Premier League.

Week 1

Montpellier HSC		1 - 1		Toulouse FC
Evian TG FC		2 - 3		Girondins de Bordeaux
AS Nancy Lorraine		1 - 0		Stade Brestois 29
OGC Nice		0 - 1		AC Ajaccio
Paris Saint-Germain		2 - 2		FC Lorient
Stade Rennais FC		0 - 1		Olympique Lyonnais
AS Saint-Etienne		1 - 2		LOSC Lille

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard		2 - 3		SC Bastia
ESTAC Troyes		0 - 1		Valenciennes FC

Stade de Reims

0 - 1

Olympique de Marseille