Reigning champions Montpellier got their season off to a frustrating start on Friday as they could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to nine-man Toulouse.
Rene Girard’s hosts lifted their first ever league title in May, but then lost their league top scorer Olivier Giroud to Arsenal pre-season and the result was a relative lack of sharpness that saw them pay the price of two dropped points.
Nigerian striker John Utaka sent Souleymane Camara clear for the hosts in the 34th minute and he clipped home — but instead of capitalizing, Montpellier found themselves pegged back 18 minutes from time when Wissam Ben Yedder headed home from a cross by Serge Aurier.
Photo: AFP
Toulouse also drew at the Stade de la Mosson — perhaps a positive omen for Montpellier, who still went on to deprive Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) of a first title since 1984.
This time, the visitors were left hanging on grimly after they had Adrien Regattin and Serge Aurier sent off.
Montpellier had themselves played for almost an hour a man short after Tunisian star Jamel Saihi was red-carded for a foul on Francois Sirieix six minutes before the break.
“It’s a point — a bit of a shame to finish with 10 men,” a pensive Girard said afterward. “It was a tight match — but I am satisfied with the lads’ and the spirit they showed, even if we are not yet at 100 percent. It’s a rather timid return [to league action].”
Toulouse counterpart Alain Casanova said: “At 10 against 10, it was possible” to poach a win. At 10 against nine, it was more complicated. So in the end, we can say it’s a good point.”
Montpellier also lost their Champions Trophy opener, albeit on penalties, to Lyon — and Girard will doubtless be privately concerned after their failure to get their season off to a flier given that big-spenders PSG will fully expect to see off a Lorient that only just stayed up in their opener.
Even so, Montpellier may take comfort from the fact that Lorient have regularly upset PSG — including in Paris — in recent years.
Under experienced former Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti, PSG are widely expected to go one better than runners-up this time round as well as punch their weight in the Champions League after a decade on the European sidelines, given the pot of money their Qatari benefactors have made available.
In other action yesterday, last year’s champions, Lille, was to travel to former giants Saint Etienne, while Lyon were in action at Rennes.
Today, 1950s giants Reims, back in the top flight after 33 years, host a Marseille side who have lost coach Didier Deschamps to the France job and who have turned to Elie Baup, in recent years a TV pundit, but also their former coach.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later