entry tension, dazzling Neymar and Messi and already decisive recruits

FAfter the holidays in the sun, the actors of Ligue 1 showed their public that they were well prepared to resume the new 2022-2023 season, from Friday August 5. With new players well integrated into the various squads and already decisive, as well as superb goals, the French championship has regained the same exciting intensity as at the start of last season.

The reigning Parisian champions, clear winners of Clermont, Saturday August 6, are already taking the lead in Ligue 1. If Monaco, 3rd at the end of the previous season, made a successful entry into the scene, Rennes, which had taken 4th place in 2021-2022, stumbled in Lorient (for the first time in ten years).

While waiting for the first performance of Olympique de Marseille – against Reims (8:45 p.m.) – under the leadership of Igor Tudor, its new coach whose methods cause some tension in the ranks of the players, only one match remained empty this day. very rich in goals: Nantes-Angers (0-0).

The results of the first day

Lyon-AC Ajaccio : 2-1

Strasbourg-Monaco: 1-2

Clermont-Paris SG: 0-5

Toulouse-Nice: 1-1

Lens-Brest: 3-2

Angers-Nantes: 0-0

Montpellier-Troyes: 3-2

Lille-Auxerre: 4-1

Rennes-Lorient: 0-1

  • The start of the weekend’s match: Lille wasted no time

Thirty-six seconds for the opener, less than three minutes to double the lead… Lille struck hard from the start of the match against Auxerrois on Sunday afternoon. AJ Auxerre didn’t even have time to touch the ball before Benjamin Andre netted the opening goal and then Jonathan David set the Ligue 1 tone for the promoted just two minutes later.

Overwhelmed and too passive against Lille already well on their legs, the Auxerrois suffered throughout the first period and were punished a third time before half-time, again by Jonathan David, well served by Rémy Cabella, twirling and author of two assists. On returning from the locker room, Auxerre showed a better face, but that was not enough to stop Lille’s dynamic, since Akim Zedadka came to score a fourth goal for the Mastiffs. The Burgundian efforts nevertheless ended up paying off and Gaëtan Charbonnier reduced the gap (4-1).

Customary of the fact, Anthony Lopes again distinguished himself by a dangerous aerial exit on the first day of the championship. The Portuguese goalkeeper missed his intervention by going out in front of the Ajaccio striker, Mounaïm El Idrissy, not touching the ball but hitting his opponent head on, who remained on the ground for a few minutes, the time to regain his senses.

Expelled, Anthony Lopes received the first red card of the season and was replaced by Rémy Riou. At 35, the goalkeeper came off the bench and played his first professional minutes with his training club, which he joined during the summer transfer window from Caen. He could not avoid the reduction of the score of Thomas Mangani on the penalty conceded on the fault of Anthony Lopes, but illustrated himself on a beautiful parade at the hour mark to allow his team to win, 2-1, thanks in particular to a goal from the ghost Alexandre Lacazette.

In a tense match, with six yellow cards, neo-Ajaccien Romain Hamouma also received a red card. The suspensions of the two players will be studied by the Disciplinary Committee of the League, Wednesday August 10.

” You can pay to see players like that! Me, I’m lucky, I don’t pay… I’m paid to see that! »

While his team had just been slapped by Paris-Saint-Germain (0-5), Saturday evening, the Clermont coach, Pascal Gastien, could only salute the performances of Neymar and Lionel Messi in conference Press. The sparkling Brazilian stood out with a goal and three assists, while the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner scored twice. The Argentinian especially stood out on the last goal of the game, on which he controlled the ball with his chest, back to goal, before performing an acrobatic return.

Pascal Gastien was not the only Clermontois won over by the attacking game offered by PSG, since a good part of the Gabriel-Montpied stadium applauded and chanted the name of Messi after this fifth goal scored by the Parisian.

Krépin Diatta celebrates his goal against Strasbourg, Saturday August 6, 2022.

He had replayed on July 27 for the first time in almost eight months. But it was only a friendly match against Southampton (lost 3-1). His real return to competition, Krépin Diatta did on Saturday with Monaco’s first Ligue 1 match of the season in Strasbourg. The 23-year-old Senegalese international did not miss the opportunity to remember the good memories of the players and followers of the championship: he scored, with a superb volley, the first goal of the Monegasques against the Strasbourgeois (score final 2-1).

A nod to his own setbacks? Last season, on November 19, 2021, he scored his first goal in Ligue 1 against Lille. First and only goal, because it was also on that day that he injured his left knee, which had forced an operation (of the anterior cruciate ligament). With, as a result, a long distance from the field, synonymous, in particular, with absence from the African Cup of Nations with the Senegalese national team, as well as from playoff matches for the 2022 World Cup.

1, like the first goal in their first Ligue 1 match for Toulouse’s Thijs Dallinga and Nice’s Aaron Ramsey, in the draw between “TéFéCé” and Le Gym (1-1), early Sunday afternoon . It was the Dutchman from Toulouse who first stood out, from the 20e minute of the match, confirming the hopes placed in him, when he finished top scorer in the Dutch second division last season, with 32 goals.

More experienced, the neo-Nice Aaron Ramsey, in difficulty in recent seasons since his departure from Arsenal, also scored his first goal in Ligue 1, allowing the Aiglons to equalize in the 78the minute. The rookies shone Sunday afternoon at the Municipal Stadium.

Hortense LeBlanc


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