Oui, PSG won against Lyon at the end of the suspense and continued their flawless performance in Ligue 1. Lens won the North derby against Lille in a match marked by overflows between supporters.
Yes, the French Loïc Bruni won the last stage of the Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup on Saturday, September 18, winning the general classification of the discipline.
Yes, the Italian Filippo Ganna retained his title of world time trial champion on Sunday, frustrating all of Belgium and particularly Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel.
But something else happened this weekend that you might have missed.
The three weekend lessons
- The taste of defeat, you won’t know
Who will be able to stop the Toulouse residents? Winners of the French championship and the Champions Cup last season, the players of Ugo Mola do not seem satisfied at the start of the Top 14. After La Rochelle and Toulon, Montpellier was the victim of the Toulouse Stadium law on Saturday. , winner on the lawn of the Hérault (17-15).
The MHR did not stay in contact with Toulouse for long. Forty-two seconds to be precise… Time for Romain Ntamack to take advantage of an interior rebate from Lucas Tauzin to register his first try. The French center itself went there from its achievement at the start of the second period (49e), allowing the Rouge et Noir to take off, before the return of the Montpellier at the end of the match, thanks to the tests of Martin Doan (66e) and Vincent Rattez (76e).
At 15 against 13 in the last minutes, the MHR pushed, but this Toulouse stadium seems untouchable. Braced in defense, the reigning French champions resisted to finally win by two points. After Racing 92’s defeat against Biarritz (28-19) and the Castres’ draw against Bordeaux (23-23), Stade Toulouse is the only team to have managed to win its first three league matches.
- Of your Danish opponents, you will have
The French representatives were received two out of two on Saturday in the Women’s Handball Champions League. Metz led the way by winning 27-21 on the floor of the Danes of Odense, thanks in particular to the efficiency of his center-half Méline Nocandy in attack (7 goals) and the strength of his goalkeeper Ivana Kapitanovic (10 saves, at 31% repulsed shots). The Lorraines open their counter in Group B following the postponement of their first match against CSKA Moscow.
In Group A, Brest then disposed of another Danish team, Esbjerg, with a score of 26-23. The Breton title holder is making up for it after his defeat (26-24) in Rostov, Russia, conceded on the first day. At home, the goalkeeper of the Brest team, Sandra Toft, was illustrated with in particular three penalties stopped (for a total of 15 stops).
- Of the title of world champion, you will get closer
“El Diablo” approaches paradise. Second in the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday, Fabio Quartararo returned to the wheel of the Italian Francesco Bagnaia at the end of the race, without finding the opening to overtake him. But whatever: with four rounds to go to the end of the season, the French driver is more than ever at the top of the general classification, and has 48 points ahead of Bagnaia.
Author of a second victory in two races, the Italian promises to be Quartararo’s main competitor in the home stretch of this season. But in San Marino, the French presented sacred guarantees to get his first world title. Starting third, he managed his score perfectly and could even have played for victory by showing more daring.
Well aware of the big points that this second place offered him, he rather preferred to play it old veteran of the circuit by not risking a fall in the last corners on a risky attack. Next stop for Quartararo: October 3, during the Japanese Grand Prix.
The weekend video
Return on the red card during #COUBB ? What sanction for the Castres player according to you? https://t.co/Q9jo5nE9rR
Maxime Lucu will long remember his “meeting” with Ryno Pieterse. At the 64e minute of the Top 14 meeting between Castres and Bordeaux on Saturday, the scrum-half hits a candle, but will never have the opportunity to find himself below to recover the ball. The fault of the South African Ryno Pieterse, who so to speak “cut” a few moments after the kick. Tackle in the air, without the ball and high limit, we let you enjoy in video the farandole of faults of the second line Castres on the action.
The Castres Olympic player was logically excluded from the field by the referee while Maxime Lucu also had to leave the field, shaken by the impact. In the evening, the Bordeaux scrum-half announced on Twitter to go ” good “, while his coach, Christophe Urios, was relieved after the meeting that the tackle was not to the head. “Fortunately he takes it there, otherwise he can kill him!” “
The next day, Ryno Pieterse made amends: “I would like to apologize to Maxime Lucu for my gesture yesterday. I did not control my tackle and I am sincerely sorry ”, he said on his Instagram account.
The declaration of the weekend
” The time has come, we are ready to take on the challenge of the presidency. “
After being the king of the rings, Manny Pacquiao wants to take the lead of the Philippines. The 42-year-old boxer announced his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election on Sunday. “To all those who ask me what my skills and abilities are, have you ever suffered from hunger? “, launched the one who was world champion in eight different weight classes during his career, which ended on August 22 in Las Vegas with a loss to Cuban Yordenis Ugas.
Manny Pacquiao is not his first attempt in the world of politics. The former boxer was already elected deputy in the Philippines in 2010, then became a senator a few years later, in 2016.
The sportswoman of the weekend: Clara Tauson
Already titled twice this season, in Lyon and Chicago, Clara Tauson added at just 18 years old a third tournament to her record on Sunday at the WTA 250 tournament in Luxembourg. The Dane dominated the Latvian in the final and seeded no 3, Jelena Ostapenko. After winning the first set, she lost the second set before snatching the third after two hours and five minutes of a close match (6-3, 4-6, 6-4). 70e world at the start of the tournament, Clara Tauson made a splash at the gates of the top 50 in the standings with this victory. A week after the coronation of Emma Raducanu at the US Open, a wind of youth is blowing strongly on the women’s circuit.
The weekend figure
110 million euros
This is the sum that Lionel Messi will receive from PSG if he remains three years in the Parisian club, according to The team. The daily revealed on Saturday the salary conditions of “La Pulga”, who arrived this summer in the French championship. In detail, Messi would receive 30 million euros net, part of which will be paid in cryptocurrency, during his first season in Paris, then 40 million during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 fiscal years, thanks to loyalty bonuses.
This revelation of the sports daily was not to the taste of Leonardo. The sporting director of PSG immediately went to the front on RMC to deny this information. “We cannot accept to put this out on the front page of a newspaper like The Team. This is unacceptable. I think it’s a lack of respect and we didn’t like it. I don’t understand the timing. It is really very far from the truth, on the duration and the figures. “