Ligue 1 Lowdown

Reigning champions Lille lost their match against Montpellier

Shock (s) of the weekend: Last week, I described how Lille, Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain all failed to grab maximum points from the opening weekend in the league. This week, I will describe, er, the same thing.

Last season’s top six sides, Lille, Marseille, Lyon, PSG, Sochaux and Rennes all failed to chalk up a win in the second round of matches in the league, which leaves some of them sitting in the unfamiliar territory of mid-table.

First up, reigning league champions, Lille, came unstuck against a solid Montpellier defence and a rather exceptional performance from reserve goalkeeper Laurent Pionnier. Rudi Garcia’s side still put on a promising display of football even if the 1-0 loss at home means they still haven’t won a Ligue 1 game in August for the past three years.

Although Lille lost, Garcia seemed pleased with his team’s performance. But one manager who was less than impressed with his squad was Didier Deschamps, and really, who can blame him. It was bad enough that Marseille only got a point from their game against Auxerre this weekend (2-2) but it must have been infuriating that it came after Deschamps’ men had been leading 2-0 at the break thanks to goals from Loïc Rémy and André Ayew. (And judging by Deschamps’ post-match comments below, I think I can safely assume it was quite annoying.)

Kevin Gameiro put Paris Saint-Germain ahead against Rennes

Now, PSG also feature in my ‘Shock of the Weekend’ section – which I guess should be ‘Shocks of the Weekend’ – after they let their one-goal lead against Rennes slip in the dying minutes of the game courtesy of Jonathan Pitroïpa’s 88th-minute strike.

Lyon had to do it the other way round and come from a goal down against Ajaccio (yes, newly-promoted Ajaccio) to grab a point at the Stade de Gerland. Lisandro Lopez was the man to save the game for Les Gones and it was a fair result considering that Lyon had struck the woodwork no less than four times during the match.

Result of the weekend: Evian players and fans alike will surely savour this weekend for a long time as the Ligue 1 new boys not only got their first ever top-flight win against Nice (1-0) but they did so in front of their own fans. Historic.

Quote (s) of the weekend: Didier Deschamps comments on Marseille’s 2-2 draw against Auxerre: “It’s infuriating. We were 2-0 up away from home; you have to be capable of holding onto a lead like that. At the beginning of the second half, I got the feeling we should have stayed in the dressing room. We got cold feet and this galvanised Auxerre.”

Bordeaux coach Francis Gillot believes the club’s 1-1 draw against Lorient was mentally important for the future success of the team: “It was a good game to watch and, for us, a very positive evening. In terms of our frame of mind, something was started here tonight.

“I don’t care about what has happened at Bordeaux in the recent past – I’m looking to the future.”

Plug of the week: I can’t see me having this particular section in my blog on a regular basis but it seems necessary when a website like French Football Weekly (FFW) is around. I only recently discovered FFW and the site features weekly podcasts and articles about the French league  - all in English. So what are you waiting for? Check them out!

Full results: Lille 0-1 Montpellier; Auxerre 2-2 Marseille; Rennes 1-1 PSG; Lyon 1-1 Ajaccio; Toulouse 2-0 Dijon; St-Etienne 1-0 Nancy; Sochaux 1-2 Caen; Lorient 1-1 Bordeaux; Valenciennes 0-0 Brest and Evian 1-0 Nice.