The weekend ended with a spectacular and stunning attacking festival, won 4-3 by Lille against Monaco. In the standings, the LOSC of Rémy Cabella, double scorer, overtook the Monegasques and took 6th place in the French football championship.
The Lille thus settle in the wheel of Marseille (5th) and Rennes (4th).
Rennes “on time”
The Rennais also experienced a good dynamic in October. Victory at Angers brings them just three points behind Lens (2nd) and Lorient (3rd), who struggled to bring Troyes to a 2-2 draw.
Bruno Genesio’s team is in a good position before approaching the last three matches preceding the long truce of the World Cup.
“With an average of two points per game, we are on time” for the podium, believes the Rennes coach. But, he nuanced, “there are still a lot of matches to play, nobody knows what will happen after the long break”.
Kombouaré exasperated
It was additional time that decided the fate of Nice-Nantes (1-1): Riviera striker Nicolas Pépé scored a penalty in the 97th minute after a contentious aerial duel.
Goalkeeper Alban Lafont received a red card for protest, as well as Kader Bamba, yet a substitute. The Nantes were all the more ulcerated by the decision of François Letexier that they claimed, in vain, a penalty in the first period after a double hand from Mattia Viti.
His FC Nantes vegetates in fifteenth place with only two points ahead of the red zone. Twelfth, Nice limits the damage after a game where they suffered in front of supporters who even whistled them in the second half.
The Aiglons of the rich owner Inéos remain struggling in the league, with only four points ahead of Strasbourg, which has the same number of points as the first relegated.
“Enough is enough”
The Alsatians came back from afar in Toulouse (2-2), where they were down 2-0. Lebo Mothiba and Kevin Gameiro allowed their team to breathe easier, as a third defeat in three weeks loomed.
Strasbourg even leaves from the amazing promoted, tenth, with regrets. Referee Jérémy Stinat almost awarded them a penalty at the very end of the match, before changing his mind with the support of the VAR.
“We never said anything but there, enough is enough,” railed coach Julien Stéphan. “You have to have courage and the referee lacked it”. Racing has the same number of points as Brest, the first relegation player, winner in Clermont (3-1).
Slimani victim of racism?
The Brest Ty’Zefs signed their second success this season, two months after the first, and two weeks after the dismissal of coach Michel Der Zakarian.
The meeting was overshadowed by the racist insults of which the Algerian striker from Brest, Islam Slimani, said he was the victim in the middle of the match. “Touched” by his accusations, the Clermont captain, Johan Gastien, denied outright: “I did not tell him + dirty Arab +, never in my life would I say that”.
As in Brest, the change of coach has apparently done good for Reims, fourteenth after their 2-1 victory against relegated Auxerre, a week after standing up to Lorient (0-0). Oscar Garcia’s replacement William Still picked up his first victory through Japanese striker Junya Ito in the dying minutes.