Posts Tagged ‘Razak Boukari’
La semaine en France: Week 25
A bite-size round-up of the week’s events in French football, for anyone who wants to keep up with what’s happening in Ligue 1 but hasn’t got the time (or the French) to do so.
Ligue 1
The compressing and expanding accordion that is the Ligue 1 title race was squeezed together once again in Week 25, with just four points now separating the top five after Lille’s 1-1 draw at home to Lyon.
Rennes’ fine form continued with a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Lens, in which Razak Boukari netted a cracking goal against his former club. It was Rennes’ fourth straight league win and means that Frédéric Antonetti’s men trail the leaders by goal difference alone. Marseille are a point behind, in third place, after an André Ayew double saw them to a 2-1 win at Nancy.
Paris Saint-Germain trail OM by a point following a 2-1 victory at home to Toulouse that came despite a performance from centre-back Sylvain Armand befitting of its own one-man highlights reel. His spectacularly mistimed challenge on Moussa Sissoko gifted the visitors a 17th-minute penalty that Paulo Machado missed before Armand volleyed PSG into the lead. Adrián Gunino’s own goal made it 2-0 but Armand kept things interesting by ducking beneath a high ball and allowing Franck Tabanou to pull one back for TFC.
Lille’s draw with Lyon was marred once again by the hosts’ wretched playing surface but the pitch was finally re-laid on Thursday and will be completely revamped in the summer. Jean Tigana offered to quit as Bordeaux coach but then saw his side beat Auxerre 3-0 and was subsequently persuaded to stay by president Jean-Louis Triaud and majority shareholder Nicolas de Tavernost.
Auxerre have now gone 16 games without a win and are only a point above the drop zone. Monaco looked set to leapfrog them but threw away a 2-0 goal lead to draw 2-2 at home to Caen. Meanwhile, Nice’s 2-0 win at Saint-Etienne, featuring an extraordinary goal from Kafoumba Coulibaly (see below), lifted them four points away from the relegation places.
Ligue 1 results
Saturday: Arles-Avignon 1-1 Brest, Monaco 2-2 Caen, Rennes 2-0 Lens, Saint-Etienne 0-2 Nice, Sochaux 0-0 Montpellier, Valenciennes 0-0 Lorient, Bordeaux 3-0 Auxerre; Saturday: Nancy 1-2 Marseille, PSG 2-1 Toulouse, Lille 1-1 Lyon
La semaine en France: Week 20
A bite-size round-up of the week’s events in French football, for anyone who wants to keep up with what’s happening in Ligue 1 but hasn’t got the time (or the French) to do so.
Ligue 1
There were few signs of post-Christmas hangovers as Ligue 1 resumed after the winter break, with wins for all the serious title contenders.
Leaders Lille immediately hit their stride with a 2-0 win at Nice, before Eden Hazard and Gervinho inspired Rudi Garcia’s side to a comprehensive 3-0 defeat of Nancy in their re-arranged home game on Wednesday to send them four points clear of their title rivals.
Paris Saint-Germain, Rennes and Lyon head the chasing pack on 34 points, after all three kicked off 2011 with victories. PSG had the most difficult return to action, falling behind at home to Sochaux but equalising almost immediately through stand-in skipper Mamadou Sakho and securing a 2-1 victory thanks to a neat finish in the 23rd minute by Ludovic Giuly. Rennes, with new €3 million signing Razak Boukari spearheading the attack, put four unanswered goals past Arles-Avignon (including a delightful chip from Alexander Tettey and Yann M’Vila’s first ever Ligue 1 goal).
Yoann Gourcuff made his first appearance for Lyon since injuring his Achilles tendon at Schalke in November, but Bafétimbi Gomis was the star of the show with a brace of goals (the first an absolute stonker) in a 3-0 win over Lorient. Marseille had plenty of reason to cheer after beating Bordeaux 2-1. André-Pierre Gignac’s volleyed opener was his first goal at Stade Vélodrome since his summer move from Toulouse, while victory ended a run of five league games without a win and kept the champions within two points of PSG.
Toulouse climbed to sixth by beating Nancy 1-0, with Montpellier seventh after a late fightback saw them down Valenciennes 2-1. Saint-Etienne led 1-0 with 10 minutes to play at Lens but a Sébastien Roudet penalty quickly followed by a Loïc Perrin own goal saw Les Verts snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, dropping them two places to eighth.
Ligue 1 results
Saturday: Auxerre 1-1 Monaco, Brest 1-3 Caen, Lens 2-1 Saint-Etienne, Lyon 3-0 Lorient, Montpellier 2-1 Valenciennes, Nice 0-2 Lille, PSG 2-1 Sochaux, Rennes 4-0 Arles-Avignon, Toulouse 1-0 Nancy; Sunday: Marseille 2-1 Bordeaux; Wednesday: Lille 3-0 Nancy
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