AS Monaco and Olympique Lyonnais Lyon lost ground on leaders Paris Saint-Germain in French Ligue 1 action on Saturday with Monaco held 1-1 at Toulouse while Lyon fell 2-1 at home to Stade Rennais.
A second-half strike by the excellent Blaise Matuidi gave Paris Saint-Germain a 1-0 win away to Montpellier Herault on Friday as the French champions maintained their perfect start. Matuidi’s 61st-minute goal ensured PSG have a maximum nine points, two points ahead of an unheralded pursuing trio of Bastia, Angers and Nantes who all achieved wins on Saturday.
Monaco had been looking to get back to winning ways after their goalless draw at Lille OSC last week and a 3-1 defeat in Valencia in the first leg of their Champions League play-off.
Photo: Reuters
Quarter-finalists last season, Leonardo Jardim’s side now face an uphill struggle to turn that European tie around in the return at the Stade Louis II tomorrow, before they meet PSG in Ligue 1 next weekend.
Jardim’s starting line-up on Saturday included just three players who featured in Spain — goalkeeper Danijel Subasic, Brazilian defender Wallace and midfielder Jeremy Toulalan.
Monaco’s defense was quickly under pressure and could have fallen behind earlier with shots from Ben Yedder after five minutes and a Martin Braithwaite header three minutes later saved by Subasic.
Defender Layvin Kurzawa returned from injury but Monaco could only garner one point with Thomas Lemar’s 65th equalizer canceling out Mali midfielder Tongo Doumbia’s 23rd-minute opener following a Subasic error.
“We messed up many of our passes in the first half and conceded a goal because of lack of experience but not because we had a lot of young players on the pitch,” Jardim said. “Against Valencia the aim is to win by two goals. There isn’t a priority given to the match at home against Valencia or against PSG. The most important match is the next one.”
Lyon’s patchy early-season form continued after a second-half Mehdi Zeffane goal condemned them to a 2-1 defeat at home to Rennes.
Last season’s runners-up fell behind to a Pedro Henrique goal after just eight minutes at the Stade de Gerland. Hubert Fournier’s men swiftly leveled thanks to Nabil Fekir’s deflected effort after good work from new signing Rafael da Silva.
However, Rennes secured back-to-back wins thanks to Algerian international Zeffane’s 56th-minute strike.
“It’s been a complicated start to the season,” said midfielder Mathieu Valbuena, who joined Lyon earlier this month from Russian club Dynamo Moscow for 7 million euros (US$7.97 million).
“It’s a big disappointment for the group but particularly for me because it was my first match at home. But we mustn’t get discouraged, we have to find the spark that we had last season,” added Valbuena, who is back in his homeland as he bids to win a place in the France squad for Euro 2016.
With Lyon and Monaco stuck mid-table and Olympique de Marseille in the relegation zone ahead of Sunday’s home game against ESTAC Troyes, SC Bastia, Angers SCO and Nantes are flying high behind PSG.
In Corsica, Angers won the duel of promoted sides 2-0 at Gazelec Ajaccio thanks to a double from Senegalese captain Cheikh Ndoye, while a Julian Palmieri double helped Bastia to a 3-0 win over Breton visitors En avant de Guingamp.
Caen and Stade de Reims, who had won their first two games, both suffered their first defeats of the season with the Normandy side losing 2-1 at OGC Nice following superb goals from Hatem Ben Arfa and Alassane Plia, while Reims lost 1-0 at 2001 champions Nantes.
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