Matchday 20 – Lyon manages to lose against Toulouse

By: Sam | January 14th, 2007

O God, how the mighty have fallen! Olympique Lyonnais, leader of Ligue 1! Humiliated! With a slender lead of 14 points over second place, got tripped up on the road to start the second part of the season out of style. Yes, as written in my hilariously clever title, the reigning champions picked up exactly zero points this weekend, dropping a 2-0 decision to then-12th place Toulouse FC. The video is below.

While Lyon played a very dismal match, and couldn’t seem to capitalize on any opportunity whatsoever, the euphoric victors played a match more than worthy of the result. Despite Florent Malouda’s long-range strike that grazed the post, the scoreboard stayed at 0-0 at the half. Then came the magic of Toulouse’s Swedish maestro Johan Elmander.

Fighting off three Lyon defenders, the man of the night fed Achille Emana, who put away the ball for an easy finish. And ten minutes from time, he again ran through the back four like a knife through butter and put away the game this time, on a deft finish from a bad angle. Toulouse, now tenth, meets Paris this week in a postponed game from last December.

Elsewhere, notably in the north of the country, Lens and Lille had themselves le derby du nord, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Lens, second, and Lille, fifth, had impressive goals to their credit, Lille’s brazilian Bastos taking advantages of the keeper’s bad position to place a perfect volley into the goal. Lens equalized fifteen minutes later on Jussiê’s inside-foot volley on Dindane’s cross. Lens now has three points over third-place Marseille, who also took part in an important match this weekend.

That was their visit to Brittany to have a go at Rennes, whom they had beaten 2-0 at home in the first round. Playing only their fourth game in eight days, the visitors did not look the least bit weary. In the first half, both keepers kept their sides in the balance, with Rennes’ Simon Pouplin impressively keeping out Nasri’s strike. A few minutes from half-time, the same Nasri attracted M’Bia to a rather vicious tackle, that merited the latter’s expulsion.

With Marseille having the numerical advantage, it took them but a few minutes to scare their hosts, as Maoulida smacked a volley onto the crossbar. Five minutes later, the fear was concrete, with Cissé dribbling a ball through a sorry Pouplin to give Marseille the advantage. They would never look back, as Maoulida redeemed himself for his earlier near miss to ice the game in injury time with his fourth of the season.

Also, wouldn’t you know it, Paris-SG went and lost at home to Valenciennes, and are now in 17th place.

Lyon-Lens-Marseille-Sochaux is how the top looks now.

Other scores: Auxerre 1-0 Sochaux; Bordeaux 1-1 Lorient; Le Mans 2-0 Troyes; Nantes 1-0 Nice; Sedan 2-2 Nancy; Saint-Étienne 0-1 Monaco

Toulouse_-_Lyon
envoyé par loops

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