Stickied French Footballl

[Ligue 1 fan]

Several coaches including Hervé Renard express an interest in Rennes job for next reason.

 

[mistermagic]

Ok so statu quo at the top with ourselves and Marseille drawing 2-2 at home while Lyon drew at Lorient 1-1 which is not a bad result.

Was quite pissed off when I heard that we failed to beat Caen at home but now that I've watched the match I can fairly say that we've probably played our best game of the season and were really unlucky with the injuries.
It infuriates me how Blanc lacks balls by not dropping Cavani to the bench. Yes he's on massive wages but who isn't? We started in our regular 433 but we played two actual wingers (Lucas and Lavezzi) either side of Ibra and our play going forward was much more fluid. Cabaye also added more drive than Thiago Motta ever does (or ever will since he's getting on a bit).
However, Cabaye had to leave us after 15 minues and will miss the Chelsea game. We subbed him with Rabiot who I hope doesn't play against them as he'd get ripped a new one by Fabregas. Next we subbed Marquinhos for David Luiz at half-time more out of precaution than injury as he is fit to play tomorrow's game. Finally, and this is where Blanc was very unlucky, we made our third and last sub minutes (Van der Wiel coming on for Matuidi) before Aurier injured himself which left us with just 10 men followed then by Lucas who pulled a muscle. He tried to run it off but had to leave us with just 9 men on the pitch. Caen then scored 2 goals in quick succession. Good on them for believing till the very end. I'm pretty sure the rest of the league would have waited for the seconds to run as losing to us 2-0 in our yard ain't too bad.

Elsewhere, Saint-Etienne lost ground (well, not that much) with yet another defeat. It's now 5 games without a win for Les Verts. Not great when you have CL aspirations. The gap between 3rd and 4th is too big anyway with only 13 games to go. Monaco couldn't capitalise on this defeat as their home game against Montpellier was postponed. I have no idea why.

The other big story is that most of the lower half of the table didn't lose except for the bottom two that are Lens and Metz who both lost their home games 0-2 to Evian and Guingamp respectively. This puts them in a serious predicament and quite frankly a shoe-in for Ligue 2 next season. Metz are 7 pts from safety and Lens 6 which is a lot for sides who can't win games.
The rest of the pack did win though. Evian got a vital win at Lens, Toulouse beat Rennes 2-1 (4 home games without losing now, if they can sort out this horrible away form (4 defeats on the trot) they'll be fine), Lorient, Caen and Reims drew against the top 3 while Bastia won at Nantes.
It's looking increasingly likely that Lens and Metz will go down sooner than the rest and the teams mentioned above will have to fight it out not to finish 18th.

 

[carlospuyol]

That's impressive. Get yourself to German grounds. You'll experience much more noise than at La Beaujoire.

Only been on the old Bayern olympic stadium and regular visits to the Ludwigspark Saarbrücken (what on earth has happened to them? - see German thread) and the atmosphere was poor. Believe Dortmund is the one in Germany. Where in France would you say is better than La Beaujoire. Certainly not Le stade de la Mosson, in spite of following the fortunes of MTP.

 

[mistermagic]

Marseille, Saint-Etienne, PSG (on a big night like tonight) and Lens have good ultras. Lyon is alright but Gerland is crap. Would be interesting to see how they fare in their new stadium (hopefully better).

 

[carlospuyol]

My lad has been a regular at la Beaujoire since being in France, but is off to St Etienne v Marseiile at the weekend. Will be interesting to see how he feels it compares.

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

Zlatan is banned for 3 games but one of which is conditional so could only be 2.

Nice v Monaco tomorrow night.

 

[mistermagic]

Matchday 26
Pretty straightforward win for us on Saturday against Toulouse. With all the injuries, young Adrien Rabiot stepped up and scored his first Ligue 1 brace, the first a well taken long-range strike and the other a nice tap in after good work by Pastore on the flank. We won 3-1 but went back to being complacent at the back as Sirigu needed to pull off two good saves to keep the score comfortable. We have the squad to score goals which probably isn't the case with Lyon however our goal difference is by far inferior to Lyon's (+23 to +31). It's strange that we're not pushing on for some 6-0 wins or something in that area but just focussing on getting 3 points. Still convinced that we'll win the league but it would be nice not to make it too hard on ourselves.
Lyon beat Nantes 1-0 with Lacazette returning. It's amazing to see the difference in quality this guy brings. Without him Lyon look poor going forward with Fekir not being close to Lacazette's level. Lyon even missed a penalty against Nantes so I suppose we closed the gap on the GD somewhat.
Marseille could only draw at Saint-Etienne 2-2 which means we are now 2 points ahead of them. Gignac was ill but Bielsa still played him upfront and it showed as Marseille were poor going forward. As soon as he was replaced by Batsuhayi, Marseille got better as the sub scored a brace. Saint-Etienne needed a late equaliser by Erding to avoid defeat. It's now 6 games without a win for Les Verts.
They've been overtaken by Monaco who are still quite far behind Marseille in 4th (7 points) but they do have a game in hand so if they win that they could challenge Marseille for 3rd. I hope not, Monaco are terrible to watch. Also, Marseille in the CL is good for French football.

At the bottom, things are looking bleaker and bleaker for Metz and Lens. The former have not won for 14 games and have managed to score just once in their last 8 games (they still scored more goals than Aston Villa mind)! The latter have not won for 7 games and have recently lost important games against Evian and Caen who are direct opponents for the drop.
Evian occupy the last relegation spot but their game was postponed this weekend against Lorient (an important 6-pointer that) while the rest keep getting points here and there. Except Toulouse but they were expected to lose at PSG.

In Ligue 2, Troyes lead the way 8 pts clear at the top and should clinch the title with games to spare. The following pack consists of Brest, Gazélec Ajaccio (would be great to have them in the top flight), Angers & Dijon.
At the bottom, Arles-Avignon and Châteauroux are adrift and expected to go down. Valenciennes need to be careful as they are not far from the drop (17th). They're in terrible form with just a point from 8 games. Hopefully they survive.

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

Still don't know why Gonalons decided to take the penalty. Fekir should have took it. Oh well didn't matter.
Heard the whole of Paris erupt when Erding scored the equalizer! Marseille fail to win away yet again..

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

Big game tonight in Ligue 1 between ASM v PSG.
Both Marseille and Lyon losing means PSG can go top tonight.
No Zlatan tonight and Monaco May rest a few players.
Going for 1-1.

 

[mistermagic]

0-0 at half-time. It's not great which was expected.

Here a piece I wrote regarding the almost confirmed relegation of Lens and Metz. It enables me to announce that'll I'll start doing my title/CL/EL and relegation run-in with 10 games to go as usual. It's gonna be fun!

http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.co...z-on-the-brink-life-at-the-bottom-of-ligue-1/

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

Full time 0-0.
What a boring game.
PSG wasteful infront of goal. And as for Monaco, simply played for the draw.
The two teams meet again on Wednesday in Paris.

 

[Richard Cranium]

First time I've watched a French League match this season and not impressed. What an awful game, PSG did me for £60 aswell so I hope Chelsea dump them out the CL in the 2nd leg!

 

[mistermagic]

Wrong game to watch. I think I stopped caring after half an hour. Both sides are so boringly predictable.

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

Psg 2-0 Monaco.
Domestic quadruple still on for PSG. Luiz and Cavani the scorers.

One game in Ligue 1 tonight. Evian 1-0 Lorient

 

[mistermagic]

As stated before, Lens & Metz are already down and out. However, whoever finishes 18th will be one tight fight. Toulouse are currently but they already have 29 points which is an average of more than a pt per game! Not saying that Monaco's record of 44 points which wasn't enough to prevent relegation may be beaten. Watch this space!

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

Toulouse 1-6 Marseille!
Emphatic win for Bielsa's team.
You wonder why they don't do this most weeks!!

 

[mistermagic]

Hopefully this doesn't mean that they won't put up a fight to stay up. Otherwise the relegation fight will be a foregone conclusion.

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

I don't know if Casa is the right guy to keep them up. The team itself is talented but can't seem to win games.
I like Toulouse though. Hope they can manage to sort themselves out.

 

[mistermagic]

Tbh I don't wish for any particular club to go down. Toulouse would be a shame as it is a big place but I kinda like Lorient and Reims. Or at least have nothing against them. I actually don't mind Evian either whereas last season all I wanted was for them to crash, burn and die but that's just because I wanted Sochaux to stay up.

Playing Lens now. What funny banner can we put up this time?

 

[mistermagic]

1-0 at half-time.
Great performance aside from our very worrying goalscoring capabilities. We are all over them in the centre of the park but we just can't convert easy chances. Ibra is fast becoming the striker I have the least respect for since Mateja Kezman (and he was just bad). Careless, loses the ball on a lot of occasions and basically slows the team down when Verratti is working superbly in the middle of the park.
Oh and Bahebeck is not good enough to play for us. He should be playing for a club like Nice or soemething. I know we are putting out a B team but he's just plain awful. Whatever the fuck next? Jean-Eudes Maurice??

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

This Lyon team is something special. 5-1 winners tonight.
Lacazette insane
Fekir sublime (2 amazing finishes)
And the rest of this talented team.
Next week; Marseille v Lyon!

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

Seems like Nabil Fekir has made his choice regarding his international team. And it's France.
If true, the amount of extremely talented young French players grows.

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

SC Bastia va jouer à huis clos!
LFP have decided that Bastia will play games behind closed doors and also suspended from playing at their actual stadium.
So will have to play in France instead of Corsica!
All because of fan trouble.

 

[Stevencc]

Apparently Zlatan was so annoyed with a poor ref decision regarding a backpass that he said this during an interview with Canal+

"In 15 years I have never seen a referee like this. In this shit country, this country does not deserve PSG".

Did anyone catch it, has he been misqouted?

 

[Nath]

He's released a statement apologising and clarifying he didn't call France shit.
Think he meant he's never seen a referee as shit in this country.

Zlatan just doesn't care.

 

[mistermagic]

He has a point in that our refs are shit and just not very supportive of free-flowing football. Jaffredo is no worse than the rest though. Just never lets players get on with it.

Marseille drew with Lyon 0-0 last night while we lost at Bordeaux 2-3. Not sure when was the last time none of the top 3 failed to win.

 

[JimJams]

Or indeed all of the top 3 failed to win. As I imagine none of them failing to win is quite a regular occurrence.

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

I did mention the Zlatan incident on here but for reason my posts have vanished!
Thought Marseille were unlucky not to win yesterday via Ocampos but with no goal line technology in France, it was impossible for the linesman to say goal.
Mandanda made an incredible save at the end also.
Good point for Lyon, must be confident they can go all the way!

 

[mistermagic]

Forum had a meltdown last night or summat.

 

[mistermagic]

Toulouse have sacked Casanova and replaced him in-house with Arribagé. Will see how he goes but I hope he does well. Liked him as a player.