PSG won 1 goal to 0 at the start of the 24th day of Ligue 1 football this Friday evening against Rennes. Find all the results of the weekend.
PSG still leading
Just a few days from hosting Real Madrid in the knockout stages of the Champions League, Paris has regained confidence in a sold-out Pierre-Mauroy stadium for the first weekend of L1 without gauges in the stands this year. Paris Saint-Germain won 1 goal to 0. A success won in added time thanks to the inevitable Kylian Mbappé.
But overall PSG did not shine and are advancing towards their round of 16 first leg of the Champions League on Tuesday against Real Madrid, without much certainty. In the standings, PSG, leader of L1, is 14 points ahead of its runner-up, Olympique de Marseille. The Marseillais them, consolidated their second place thanks to a narrow victory (2-1) against Metz.
Lille returns to victory
Lille regained success against Montpellier (0-1). In difficulty in the game, Lille were able to count on the good game of Leo Jardim, who took the place of Ivo Grbic and who made four important saves during the first half hour of play in the northern goal and on a lucky goal from Xeka which deceived Omlin surfaces after a strike from Benjamin André which was blocked by a tackle from Mahamadou Sakho.
Thanks to this victory, LOSC are back in the race for Europe and are now 7th in the standings and just ahead of their opponent of the day who have lost four of their last five games.
OL offers Nice
Largely dominating, especially in the second act, Olympique Lyonnais won against a disappointing team from Nice (2-0) on Saturday evening. The Gones first relied on Moussa Dembélé at the start of the match to make the task easier. With help from the left post, the French striker opened the scoring for Olympique Lyonnais from the penalty spot. Finally, Karl Toko Ekambi sheltered the Lyon club, after a nice combination between Romain Faivre and Tanguy Ndombélé on the right.
Lyon continues its rise in the standings and finds itself in 6th place. Nice remains 3rd and does not take advantage of it to go back in front of Olympique de Marseille.
Monaco concedes a draw against Lorient
Monaco was unable to beat the 17th in Ligue 1 Lorient (0-0), Sunday afternoon at the Stade Louis-II, and misses another opportunity to get closer to the podium. It’s a real setback for Philippe Clement and his players in the race for the podium. With 37 points, Monaco still stagnates in 6th place, along with Lyon and Rennes, five points behind Nice.
Lorient, the worst team of the season away from home with 4 points collected (4 draws and no wins) before this trip, has therefore achieved a feat. Christophe Pelissier and his men thus enhance their victory against Lens (2-0) last week.
Saint-Etienne, life in green
Maintaining it again becomes an attainable dream for Saint-Etienne, overthrowing Clermont (2-1) and credited with three consecutive successes after promising victories against Angers and Montpellier. The Greens, led 1-0 at the break, kept a cool head before belatedly beating the promoted Auvergne by Mahdi Camara (71st) and Timothée Kolodziejczak (82nd).
Pascal Dupraz’s team leaves the red zone by climbing to 18th place, that of play-off, with 21 points. The sequel, however, promises to be tough for Saint-Etienne with, on the menu for the second half of February, the reception of Strasbourg and a trip to the leader Paris Saint-Germain.
Strasbourg sticks Nice
At the top of the table, Strasbourg is one of the winners of the weekend. The 1-0 win at Angers propels Julien Stéphan’s side just one point behind third-placed Nice. The Alsatians raced in the lead after a superb volley signed Kevin Gameiro (11th), the fifth goal in four consecutive league matches for the former striker from Paris, Sevilla or Valencia.
Sunday afternoon, Nantes pocketed a narrow 1-0 victory against Reims, whose central defender and captain Yunis Abdelhamid was sent off in the first quarter of an hour for too brutal an intervention against Fabio. The whistled foul gave birth to a free kick that Moses Simon (17th) transformed directly. The Canaries are eighth, two points behind OL.
Lens sinks Bordeaux
Bordeaux lost to Lens (3-2). Still weakened by their defense, the Girondins were down 3-0 after half an hour of play thanks to goals from Kalimuendo, Kakuta (from the penalty spot) and Fofana. The men of Jaroslav Plasil, who was acting pending the future appointment of David Guion on the Bordeaux bench, recovered thanks to his attacking duo Hwang and Elis who allowed the Aquitaine team to come back to the score but were not managed to complete this ascent.
Gérard Lopez’s club now occupy the last place in the standings and have still not managed to finish a match without conceding a goal. For 60 years, only Toulouse had managed such a poor performance, it was during the 1982-1983 season.