Matchday 36 – Don’t Look Now But Marseille Have Just Gone Second And Are Looking Fine

By: Sam | May 10th, 2007

Oh my goodness gracious me, what a twist we had this week in the table, particularly up top. Marseille benifited from Lens and Bordeaux’s losses to go second, two points of the two others. Sadly, we have official relegations as well. First and foremost, after 44 years of service in Ligue 1, FC Nantes-Atlantique will be playing in the lower division next season, after a woeful year of bad playing and internal problems. Also, after 36 ~~years~~ games of service in Ligue 1, CS Sedan-Ardennes, who finished second in Ligue 2 last year, will get another crack at the title, this after losing to Lille. Let’s see what happened in the three important games, shall we?

Marseille, who had enjoyed a dream start to the season and a nightmarish middle, are back on the winning track and are extremely confident at the right time, not having lost since March and gearing up for the final of the Coupe de France this weekend. Playing host to nowhere-bound Nancy, whom they beat 6-0 at home last year (I was there!), they wasted a good hour and a quarter before getting their act together and getting Chrétien sent off for handling the ball on the goal line, quite a severe decision from the referee if you ask me. Nevertheless, it was Mamadou Niang who stepped up and slotted in his sixth penalty of the season. Two minutes later, Sébastien Puygrenier pissed out the fire that had been sparked inside the stadium by placing an unstoppable header past Carrasso on a Nancy corner and tied the score. Never fear, OM fans, because Djibril Cissé bettered everything a grand total of two minutes later again, when he got the winner, also on a terrific header on a Valbuena cross. All said and done, Marseille have 58 points and a basically unsurmountable goal differential over Lens and Bordeaux, who will have to win and hope for at least an OM loss to parry second place. With everything still possible, Marseille are still my pick to finish just behind Lyon.

Speaking of them, they were hosting then-second place Lens in what was more of a party than anything else. Almost cruelly playing around with the desperate RCL, they hit two posts in the first twenty minutes, from Benzema and Diarra. Govou actually got (get this) a goal a few minutes later, when he volleyed home an impressive goal-facing strike to open the scoring. That department having been unclogged, leave it to Benzema to do his best impression of Ronaldinho and dish off to Juninho, who scored his second in as many games by arcing a carefully, and I do mean carefully taken shot right into the top corner. Alou Diarra scored his first goal of the season in injury time, from the spot, to plunge Lens into misery. Read more about this in cavity-search-like detail on Inara’s Lyon Offside.

Bordeaux, the third team “in the mix” or so to speak, had perhaps the easiest game of the lot, playing home to the relegated Nantes, in turmoil since the Barthez incident and with nothing to play for in the end of the season. Well ha-ha-ha, Bordeaux (you may know by now if you’ve read my stuff often enough that I hate Bordeaux, because watching chess is more exciting than anything they have to offer). Nantes got the only goal of the game, from their Kenyan international Denis Oliech on 78 minutes, to push Bordeaux down to a UEFA Cup spot, nevertheless going down to Ligue 2 themselves.

Also of note: Sochaux, who will be the underdogs in the Coupe de France final against Marseille this Saturday, beating Monaco on the strength of a Grax goal in the eighty-third. Yaya Touré was a big part of the win, scoring an own goal for Monaco and picking up a red card in the second half.

Other scores: Lille 2-1 Sedan; Nice 1-0 Paris-SG; Troyes 2-2 Rennes; Lorient 2-1 Auxerre; Valenciennes 1-0 Saint-Étienne; Toulouse 0-1 Le Mans