Le Mans UC 72 0 – 1 AJ Auxerre

AJA pushed into the top three, at least temporarily, as they eked out a win against Paolo Duarte’s side, who are currently firmly in the relation zone. Speaking of Paolo Duarte, here’s an excellent interview he gave to the Ligue 1 official site. The interviewer is rather bold, asking some interesting questions, and also seems to have been reading to much Harry Potter lately, referring to Jose Mourinho as the ‘Chosen One’.

FC Lorient 5 – 0 Boulogne Côte d’Opale
(No video highlights available at the point–I have seen none of this match)
I’m going to assume from the scoreline that this match was total destruction. It’s also further proof that Boulogne are going down and Cristian Gourcuff is a half decent manager.

AS Monaco FC 0 – 0 Grenoble Foot 38

Some stellar goalkeeping from Ronan Le Crom gave Grenoble their first point of the season, and they dominated the match. A bit of a shock for Monaco, who were playing at home and went into the weekend in third place. Check out the Monaco Offside for a more complete review later.

AS Nancy Lorraine 0 – 1 AS Saint-Etienne

A wonderful goal from the quickly rising star of Dimitri Payet proves key for ASSE, and bumps a frustratingly inconsistent Nancy down to 10th place. Check out the Saint-Etienne Offside for a review.

Paris Saint-Germain 0 – 1 OGC Nice

Guess who’s even more inconsistent than ASNL? PSG of course. Last weeks victory wasn’t a turnaround, simply a performance on which to base false hope. PSG completely dominated the match, but it was Nice who put the ball in the NET. I give credit to Mounier and Remy for the beautiful cross and header. The PSG Offside will have something up soon.

Valenciennes FC 1 – 1 Montpellier Hérault SC

Did you know that these two teams were the highest scoring in Ligue 1? I certainly didn’t. Anyway, Colombians ran the show, but the result didn’t really change anything. Don’t you wish we had a Montpellier Offside?

Sochaux-Montbéliard 1 – 2 RC Lens

Lens pulled out of the drop zone with this victory and grounded Sochaux in the bottom half of the table. Be sure to visit the Lens Offside for more.

LOSC Lille Métropole 2 – 0 Girondins de Bordeaux

In one of the unexpected results of the evening, surprise bottom feeders LOSC upset Ligue leaders Bordeaux. Both sides put on displays of how to miss one on one’s with the keeper, but Gervinho’s dribbling ability eventually won the match for Lille. Visit the Bordeaux Offside for more.

Toulouse FC 3 – 2 Stade Rennais FC
Some nice goals in this matchup, TFC eventually coming out on top. APG seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch, but Moussa Sissoko seems to have no intention of stopping to let Gignac take over. Check out Dave Trotter’s review at the Toulouse Offside.

Olympique Lyonnais 5 – 5 Olympique de Marseille

Match of the century? It’s certainly a candidate. I’ll let the Lyon and Marseille Offsides elaborate.

While Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille have already been grabbing the headline this week with their performances in the Champion’s League, the attention now turns to Lille and Toulouse for their games in the Europa League.  I’ll be honest, given the Ligue 1 performances earlier this week, expectations are rising– will they be able to live up to them? 

Genoa vs. Lille

Lille sits in the top spot in Group B thanks to their 3-0 win in France two weeks ago against Genoa.  Genoa will hope they can avenge their biggest defeat in European competition when Lille visit them at home on Thursday.  While Genoa may have some extra motivation, Lille can travel to Italy with confidence having won all three of their previous matches in Italy…without even conceding a goal.  Despite their domestic blunders, Lille have been on fire in Europe this season, having won all six of their seven games thus far, winning six of their last seven away matches (the only loss was to MU in the first Champions League knock out stage in the 06/07 season), accumulating more than an average of two goals per game and maintaining a less than one goal conceded per game average.  This is not to say that Genoa is not stiff competition– with the exception of their away game against Lille, they have been tough opposition.  This is especially true when they have played at home, having won six of their last seven European home games (the loss was to Ajax in the UEFA Cup semi-final match in the 91/92 season).  Both teams need a win here to have a chance of getting out of the group– especially with their games against Valencia looming in the future.

Toulouse vs. Shakhtar Donetsk

Toulouse, who were humiliated two weeks ago by Shakhtar in a 4-0 defeat in Ukraine, will be hoping to register a win to keep their European chances alive.  This will be tough.  Shakhtar, the current title holders (at least UEFA Cup title holders), have the extra motivation of knowing that if they win this game they will have secured their passage to the knock out stages.  Shakhtar have demonstrated their ability to come to France and win– they have won three of their five games in France.  On top of that, Shakhtar have established an impressive shooting average this season, having scored at least 4 goals in each of their group games thus far and their only loss in Europe this season is the 1-0 loss they suffered against Barcelona in the Super Cup.  But, don’t count Toulouse out just yet.  They have been building momentum in their domestic games, and Moussa Sissoko has the ability to turn a game around in Toulouse’s favor.

FC Girondins de Bordeaux 1-0 AS Monaco FC

This match, which happened to be a battle between first and second (which no one would have predicted at the beginning of the season), was much less exciting than last year’s version. Planus’ tap in off a Wendel free-kick kept Bordeaux in control of the top spot and allowed Lyon to overtake Monaco and move into second place.

US Boulogne Côte d’Opale 1-2 AS Nancy-Lorraine

I believe I predicted earlier that the only direction Boulogne were going was down. I think I was correct. USBCO fell to an unimpressive and inconsistent Nancy side who were without Gennaro Bracigliano, maintaining ASNL’s top ten position, and proving that Boulogne really are nothing more than a Ligue 2 side.

Grenoble Foot 38 0-2 LOSC Lille Métropole

An 11th straight defeat for Grenoble. They’re just way to unlucky. They hit the crossbar twice in this match, while Lille scored on each of their two shots. Mickael Landreau has returned from injury, starting in the net for LOSC, and Gervinho has continued to impress.

Racing Club de Lens 1-1 FC Lorient Bretagne Sud

Check out the Lens Offside for a full review.

Olympique de Marseille 1-1 Toulouse FC
Check out the Marseille Offside for a full review.

AS Saint-Etienne 0-1 Olympique Lyonnais

This was just the kind of storybook derby that I was expecting. Former Sainte favorite Bafetimbi Gomis started on the bench for Lyon, and the match remained pretty even until Gomis was brought in late on. Only minutes later, he put in the winning goal on a volley from a corner.

Nenê (Monaco), 86th minute, against Ibrahim Kone.

That’s quite a spectacular free-kick, putting Monaco ahead with four minutes left…

Nenê (Monaco), 90+2th minute, against Ibrahim Kone.

What shows real quality in a free-kick taker is consistency, and this beauty is almost exactly the same as the one that came six minutes earlier. It was if anything almost more perfect, hitting the underside of the crossbar on the way in.

Asamoah Gyan (Rennes), 90+4th minute, against Geoffrey Jourdren.

Gyan comes up with a simply sublime shot at the death against Montpellier. Nice control, wonderful placement, and flashy boots.

Andre-Pierre Gignac (Toulouse), 57th minute, against Vedran Runje.

(second goal, 1:15)
Gignac collects the ball outside the box, dribbles forward, and bangs it into the top right corner.

Gervinho (Lille), 26th minute, against Olivier Sorin.

(first goal, 0:20)
Frau receives a long ball, juggles a few times, and sends it through to Gervinho who volleys into the net from a tight angle.

Time to vote…

Who gets the prize for Goal of the Week: Round 10?(survey)

On Wednesday, Bordeaux took on FC Bayern Munich and Marseille took on Zurich. Bordeaux, who had made a good start with a draw away to Juventus followed by a win against Maccabi Haifa, greatly aided their chances for qualification in what could be described as the most difficult group. They came out of the match victorious, it was a 2-1 scoreline, but they missed two second half penalties and the result easily could have been 4-1.

Marseille picked up their first win of this Champions League campaign in Switzerland, but will need a result at the San Siro to have a chance of qualification. Here’s the Marseille Offside’s analysis of the match.

In the Europa League, French clubs had mixed fortunes. Lille recorded an astounding 3-0 win against Genoa, who are touted as one of Serie A’s better sides.

However, Toulouse were completely dismantled by defending champions Shakhtar Donetsk, the match ending 4-0.

Watch out Europe!

The games happening this weekend are…

Week 9 – Saturday, October 17, 2009
19:00	AJ Auxerre				Girondins de Bordeaux
19:00	Le Mans UC 72				Boulogne Côte d’Opale
19:00	Olympique Lyonnais				FC Sochaux-Montbéliard
19:00	Montpellier Hérault SC				AS Saint-Etienne
19:00	AS Nancy Lorraine				Olympique de Marseille
19:00	Valenciennes FC				Grenoble Foot 38
21:00	LOSC Lille Métropole				Stade Rennais FC
Week 9 – Sunday, October 18, 2009
17:00	FC Lorient				OGC Nice
17:00	AS Monaco FC				RC Lens
21:00	Toulouse FC				Paris Saint-Germain

While the table is currently looking like this:

1	Olympique Lyonnais	8	6	2	0	+10	20
2	Girondins de Bordeaux	8	6	1	1	+10	19
3	Montpellier Hérault SC	8	5	2	1	+6	17
4	AS Monaco FC	8	5	0	3	+2	15
5	Olympique de Marseille	8	4	2	2	+4	14
6	FC Lorient	8	4	2	2	+2	14
7	Paris Saint-Germain	8	3	4	1	+4	13
8	Stade Rennais FC	8	3	3	2	+6	12
9	AS Nancy Lorraine	8	3	2	3	+2	11
10	AJ Auxerre	8	3	2	3	-1	11
11	Valenciennes FC	8	3	1	4	0	10
12	AS Saint-Etienne	8	3	1	4	-2	10
13	LOSC Lille Métropole	8	2	3	3	-3	9
14	FC Sochaux-Montbéliard	8	3	0	5	-5	9
15	Toulouse FC	8	2	2	4	0	8
16	Boulogne Côte d’Opale	8	2	2	4	-5	8
17	RC Lens	8	2	2	4	-6	8
18	OGC Nice	8	2	2	4	-8	8
19	Le Mans UC 72	8	2	1	5	-3	7
20	Grenoble Foot 38	8	0	0	8	-13	0

Since most of the matches in Ligue 1 happen at the same time, I’m going to make some recommendations for matches to see. Obviously you will want to see your club’s game, but here are a few others worth glancing at.

Montpellier-Herault SC vs. AS Saint-Etienne
Today, 19:00 (1pm Eastern 10am Pacific)
I’m interested in this match because it’s another proving point for both sides. Was Les Verts win over Bordeaux a fluke, or are they going to continue their climb up the table? Montpellier are the Cinderella story of the season thus far. Will they assert their position as a title challenger, or drop back into the midtable region? These questions could very well be answered in this match. I’ll be tuning in.
Probable Lineups:
Montpellier: Jourdren – Yanga-Mbiwa, Dzodic, Spahic, Jeunechamp – Pitau, Marveaux, Costa – Aït-Fana (ou Lacombe), Montano, Dernis

Saint-Etienne: Janot – Andreu, Benalouane, N’Daw, Dabo – Landrin, Fernandes, Matuidi, Payet – Augusto, Bergessio

LOSC Lille Metropole vs. Stade Rennais FC
Today, 21:00 (3pm Eastern, 12pm Pacific)
This is a battle between two of the best teams in Ligue 1 who aren’t in our “Big Three”. These are the clubs you would expect to see in the Europa League places. This season, both sides are lower than they’d like to be in the table, Lille hanging around at 13th while Rennes are barely staying in the top ten in 8th place, only a point in front of 10th place Auxerre. Expect a tense atmosphere and no more than two goals.
Probable Lineups:
Lille: Butelle – Béria, Rami, Chedjou, Emerson – Cabaye, Debuchy, Dumont – Gervinho, Hazard – Frau

Rennes: Douchez – Théophile-Catherine, Fanni, Aubey, Danzé – M’vila, Br. Cheyrou, J. Leroy – Bangoura, M. Sow, Thomert

I’ll add my two for tomorrow later, but rest assured that Toulouse-PSG will be one of them…

Procedural Question: 8 teams or 4?

Now for the exciting part. As you've probably guessed, this week we've got Rennes (In need of a blogger), Saint-Etienne (Also needs representation), Sochaux, Toulouse, and Valenciennes. Let’s get started with Les Rouges et Noires…

Stade Rennais FC

The Rennes jerseys just have kind of an awkward shape when actually worn. The design is nice enough but the sponsor’s logo is a little bit ugly.

AS Saint-Etienne

I’ll admit it, I like Adidas shirts as a rule, they always look very professional. I do find that the green on this years kits is a little off for Sainte.

FC Sochaux-Montbelliard

I very much like these kits. They have a similar pattern to that of the Nice jerseys and have no obvious sponsor, always a plus in terms of aesthetics. It’s hard to go wrong with those colors though.

Toulouse FC

These shirts seem like they’re making an effort to be futuristic or something. Meh. With their nice crest and colors they should be doing better.

Arsenal Valenciennes FC

As you may have noticed, these aren’t what I would call original exactly…

Anyway, voting time!

So, which of these clubs has the best jersey?(trends)

Okay people, remember, voting closes in a week!

You may completely disagree with this list, think it’s terrible, that I’m the worst blogger ever, whatever. Tell me so in the comments. And to tell you the truth I probably don’t agree with it much either, but I compiled it in half an hour, and I feel exhausted after fixing it innumerable times. Tell me what you think.

Grenoble Foot 38 2-3 Montpellier HSC


OGC Nice 3-2 Valenciennes FC

Paris Saint-Germain 1-1 AS Nancy Lorraine

Stade Rennais FC 0-1 AJ Auxerre

AS Saint-Etienne 3-1 FC Girondins de Bordeaux

FC Sochaux-Montbéliard 1-0 Le Mans UC 72

RC Lens 0-2 Olympique Lyonnais

US Boulogne CO 2-3 LOSC Lille


Toulouse FC 0-1 FC Lorient

Olympique de Marseille 1-2 AS Monaco FC

Enjoy the highlights!

It’s that time again already. The next couple of days will see Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse (Europa League) and Lille (Europa League) matched up against some of the strongest teams in Europe (and arguably the world).

Debreceni vs. Lyon (Tuesday, 9/29)

Preview: This may be Debreceni’s first time in the Champion’s League and they may have lost their first game to Liverpool, but the team is only feeling more confident since their narrow 1-0 loss at Anfield. The Hungarians will look to preserve their 100% home record on Tuesday as they face Puel’s team which will be missing several key players (Lopez, Boumsong, Bodmer and Bastos). Despite these setbacks, Lyon will look to add to their game 1 win. They can take confidence in their comparative wealth of experience and their fantastic away record in Europe (winning 10 and just losing two away games since 04/05). Also, check the The Offside-Lyon blog tomorrow to see if they post a match preview.

Prediction: Lyon will win 1-0. It will be close. Lyon’s injuries will make it even closer than usual. But, I think they will crank out a very close win.

Bordeaux vs. Maccabi Haifa (Wednesday, 9/30)

Preview: Haifa will hope their historical success against French teams continues on Wednesday when they travel to Bordeaux. Their most recent European match in France was in the 98/99 Uefa Cup group stage against PSG. Haifa managed a draw in Paris, went on to beat PSG 3-2 at home and rode the momentum of that victory until the Quarterfinals. They also managed a 3-1 win against Auxerre in the 06/07 Uefa Cup competition. Bordeaux, on the other hand, have never faced an Israeli team. But the Girondins are notoriously strong at home, having only lost one home game in their last ten European matches (3-1 loss to Roma last year). Also, check the The Offside-Bordeaux blog tomorrow to see if they post a match preview.

Prediction: Bordeaux will win 2-1. They are confident, in form and focused.

Real Madrid vs. Marseille (Wednesday, 9/30)

Preview: Check out Rich’s excellent match preview on The Offside-OM blog here. I agree with Rich– I think we have a chance. However, I am concerned about the team just rolling over and accepting defeat the moment they step out onto the pitch. In today’s press conference, our two most experienced players admitted that the team was nervous (including themselves). Morientes stated in today’s press conference that OM needed to be physical in order to get respect from Real, and that the OM team is at a serious disadvantage because most of the players had never played in such an intense atmosphere before. Heinze admitted that he was nervous about playing against his former team, especially Ronaldo. Let’s hope that these EXPERIENCED players can pull it together.

Prediction: 1-1 draw. Real will choke (as they often do in Europe), Sergio Ramos will go in for a ridiculous tackle and get a red card and Real will be forced to sit back with 10 men. I think that Benzema will continue to exert his in-front-of-goal dominance against Ligue 1 teams and be on target for Madrid.

Toulouse vs. Club Brugge KV (Europa League, Thursday, 10/1)

I’m going to be honest and admit I don’t know a lot about Toulouse and I don’t know anything about Club Brugge (Belgium) so take this preview and prediction with a grain of salt. For those people that do know stuff about Toulousse, consider blogging for the team on The Offside (more information here).

Preview: Toulouse will be looking to build on their 3-2 win over FK Partizan on matchday 1 and redeem themselves in their tough loss against Lyon this past weekend. Brugge will hope to make amends for their 4-1 opening game loss against title holders FC Shakhtar Donetsk. Neither team appear to gain a strong advantage from the game being played at Toulousse. Toulouse have only won one of their last six European home matches and Brugge haven’t won away in the last five matches. Neither team have ever qualified past the group stage in European competition.

Verdict: Toulouse will win 1-0. Take it with a grain of salt.

SK Slavia Praha vs. Lille (Europa League, Thursday, 10/1)

Preview: Drawing matchday 1 with Valencia 1-1, Lille will be hoping to make up ground by defeating Slavia at home. Slavia will hope for a historic first win against a French team in order to get their qualification back on track after being defeated 2-0 at Genoa. Four French teams have visited Slavia, registering two draws and two wins. Slavia will hope their home form continues, as their 3-0 win at home in qualifying was the first time in 4 European matches they managed to score at home. Also, make sure to check The Offside-Lille blog to see if they post a preview.

Verdict: Lille will win 1-0.