Leonardo Jardim always planned for departures and his side’s 6-1 demolition of Marseille shows they will not relinquish their Ligue 1 crown without a fightBy Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football NewsIt is 15 January 2017. Monaco are top of Ligue 1. Leonardo Jardim’s side left Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome with a triumphant 4-1 win and three points to move them above Nice. And there they remained until Valère Germain rounded off an injury-time counterattack to seal a win against St Étienne and the Ligue 1 title in May. That victory against Marseille included a double from Bernardo Silva, a delightful lob from Thomas Lemar and an 89th-minute cameo from Kylian Mbappé. Up to this point, Mbappé had...
Former Brighton manager hasn’t brought Barcelona’s aesthetics to the Loire Valley but he has at least injected a joie de vivre that has long been lackingBy Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football NewsWatching Saint-Étienne against Amiens on Saturday, one would hardly have thought the hosts, playing a promoted side at home, were up to much, to say nothing of having entered the match with an unblemished record. In the game’s early stages, the defence and the midfield were playing a copious amount of long passes, trying to release the full-backs or the wingers into space, a task that was without much reward against the Picardy side’s massed back five. The hosts took the lead through a penalty,...
Lyon top the table after Ligue 1’s first match day after a 4-0 win over Strasbourg – an emphatic validation for their reconfigured attackBy Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football NewsIt seemed too familiar for Lyon in the early going, even if the faces were different. Nabil Fékir is flagged offside, Mariano Díaz finds himself in a good position but shoots straight into the hands of the Strasbourg goalkeeper Bingourou Kamara, and Memphis Depay, hugging the touchline, foolishly concedes a throw-in. Fékir and Lyon’s three other attackers, Depay, Díaz and Bertrand Traoré, looked set to dazzle without any end product, their skill on the ball for nought as they struggled to break down a side who looked...
The island’s only top-flight team are mired in fan violence, underinvestment and poor results, and their ultras are heavily culpable for the toxic atmosphereOfficial retribution for the ugly scenes that led to the abandonment of Sporting Club de Bastia’s French league match against Lyon two weeks ago was swift and will almost certainly get more brutal. Corsica’s only top-flight club are bottom of Ligue 1 and members of the Bastia 1905 ultra group may have sealed the club’s descent into the second tier by twice attacking assorted Lyon players before the game was called off. Bastia were ordered to play Saturday’s home game against Rennes behind closed doors at the neutral Stade Parsemain in Fos‑sur‑Mer on the French mainland, where they...
Edinson Cavani’s talismanic Coupe de la Ligue final performance in the win over Monaco marked his continuing rise out of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s shadowBy Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football NewsWhistles rang round the Parc des Princes. As Ángel Di María’s shot ricocheted down from the bar, with Metz keeper Thomas Didillon stranded, Edinson Cavani conspired to embarrassingly scuff his rebound effort wide, the goal at his mercy, much to the Parisian crowd’s increasing frustration. This was not an isolated incident. Although PSG eased to a 3-0 victory back in August, Cavani, thrust into the spotlight of the centre-forward role vacated by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, cut a disillusioned and embittered figure. He choked.Thirty-one points clear and 35 goals better...