French Ligue 1 Special: Lyon, Montpellier And Hazard Show Winning Class

Ligue 1 leaders Montpellier show Championship winning touch as Ancelotti virtually concedes the title on a weekend when Marseille’s woes continue while Eden Hazard raises his price.

Montpellier show championship form as PSG continue to falter

PSG’s stuttering run of form under Ancelotti may be grabbing the headlines but Montpellier have quietly worked their way up to the top with a diligence that is the hallmark of winners. If eking out results even when you are not firing on all cylinders is a trait of winning teams, then they are worth their place at the top.

Last week as PSG trashed Sochaux 6-1 at home, Montpellier came up with a no-frills performance to record a 1-0 win over Valenciennes. This week, a tough away trip to Toulouse awaited them and they came up with another clinical performance as they beat the ‘masters of the 1-0’ by the same margin.

In front of Liverpool manager Kenny Daglish and Arsenal scout Giles Grimaldi, Younes Belahanda gave the visitors a 1-0 lead in the 4th minute with a sumptuous strike. The young Moroccon’s reputation is growing by the week and he has been Montpellier’s go-to man in recent weeks with top scorer Oliver Giroud’s form taking a slight dip. The latter missed a penalty in the second half but the league leaders held on and their 5-point lead at the top was intact by the end of week, as PSG stumbled to a 2-1 loss at Lille.

The nouveau rich Parisians seem to lack belief and unity as they succumbed to what could be a potentially title deciding loss. They took the lead, quite against the run of play, through Javier Pastore, but the dismissal of captain Mamadou Sakho in the 70th minute left the floodgates open. Eden Hazard, who had till then been the best player on the pitch hitting the post, crossbar and giving the PSGAi??defenseAi??a harrowing time, needed no second invitation as he scored from the spot and turned provider for substitute Nolan Roux to lead Lille to a victory and two points behind PSG.

Ancelotti, in his post-match interview, talked about securing Champions League qualification and not the title; a sign that the belief is well and truly disappeared. The manager has frequently chopped and changed his formation and players as he seeks to find the right combination but the title may well be heading to the Stade De la Mosson.

Relegation muddle gets clearer

The scrap for staying up in Ligue 1, which over the past few weeks has been a case of one step forward and two steps back for all the teams involved in it, finally seems to be throwing up a clearer picture – though, you cannot still hazard a guess on who is going to stay up and who is going to sink.

The biggest surprise package of this battle this week were Auxerre. After going down to Nice last week, which left them five points off safety it looked curtains for an Auxerre side that has never been relegated from the top flight. But they produced a smashing performance at home to defeat fellow strugglers Brest 4-0, giving themselves hope of staying up. The latter, having sacked Alex Dupont after a wretched run of form, could not have handed new manager Corentin Martins a worse start as his team conceded 4 goals in the first half itself. The decision to sack Dupont, who took Brest from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1, so deep into the season may come back to haunt them.

Second from bottom Sochaux, after showing signs of recovery in the past seven weeks under new coach Eric Healy, slumped to their second successive defeat leaving them just 2 points above bottom placed Auxerre. Their new found confidence under Healy took a battering last week as they were smashed 6-1 by PSG and they plunged to a new low on Sunday at home to Bordeaux; they were beaten 3-0 and ended the game with 9 men.

Ajaccio, a point off the drop zone and winless in the last 7 games, got reduced to 10 men in the 11th minute against Rennes and were duly dispatched 3-1 leaving them precariously placed. Their game against Sochaux next week is a classic relegation six-pointer and may seal the fate of one of the teams. Dijon too, are in the relegation mire after a fourth consecutive loss at Saint Etienne. Their next game at home to basement club Auxerre is another massive relegation battle.

Caen, 15th with 35 points, took a point at Nancy, but are far from safe. As are Nice, who lost 2-0 to Valenciennes, leaving them in 14th with 37 points – 4 off the drop zone. Lorient, for whom we predicted relegation, suddenly seem to have roused themselves for the battle as they recorded their 2nd win in 3 games by getting the better of Marseille, whose horrendous slump is defying the law of averages. Lorient’s loss last week at Lyon after taking a two-goal lead was cruel, but they showed no sign of its after effects as they took the game to Marseille and deservedly won, with Arsenal loanee Joel Campbell putting in a noteworthy performance. A win against Nice may give them enough points to ensure safety.

This madcap relegation scrap may finally throw up who will sink and who will stay afloat.

Want some points? Play Marseille..

13: The number of games Marseille have gone without winning. Also, the number of teams that have taken a point or 3 points against them. Their last league victory came on 29th January. During this period, they have gone from the high of knocking out Inter Milan to getting humbled by Bayern Munich in the Champions League. They also plunged to the depths of getting knocked out in the Domestic Cup by a third tier side US Quevilly, before the high of triumphing in the Coupe De La Ligue. All through this, their league form has remained wretched. Sun or rain, table toppers or relegation strugglers, Marseille’s woes manifest themselves in varied forms – with the same result.

The possible reasons for their slump have already been discussed and recited like the bible over and over again – a manager who seems destined to get the sack, players looking for moves elsewhere etc etc. Andrew Ayew, who played for a couple of months with a dislocated shoulder, has decided that enough is enough and has opted to undergo a surgery. The latest loss, 2-1 at Lorient, was brought about by poor defending and a dose of bad luck as they were denied two penalties. Their fans must be grateful for the fact that they have accumulated enough points to stave off relegation, as the latest loss sees them slip down to 11th – 8 points off the drop zone.

Eden Hazard’s last season in France is also his best season

Everyone knows that this is Eden Hazard’s last season in Ligue 1 as he seeks bigger challenges elsewhere. As the player himself has revealed, his next destination will be England with Manchester City and Manchester United rumoured to be the front runners. But he is leaving an indelible impression on this league as he produces exceptional performances week after week. His all-action, power-packed display against PSG showed everyone why the Belgian is so highly rated.

In the first half, he hit the post, drew a couple of saves from Sigoru and turned provider for De Melo who almost broke the deadlock.Ai??After Pastore gave the visitors the lead, Eden took it upon himself to get his side a win as he won a penalty, converted it and then provided the assist (a delightful rabona cross) for the winner.

He may have won the player of the year last year and Lille may have won the league but the Belgian’s efforts this year are mighty impressive as they have come in a season where he is without an assisting cast. Last season, Gervinho and Moussa Sow formed a potent partnership with Hazard and Yohan Cabaye as Lille stormed to the title. All the aforementioned players have left, leaving the Belgian with additional responsibility. But he has grabbed it with both hands, racking up mind boggling stats in the process. He has 17 goals and 14 assists this term, whereas last season he had only 7 goals and 10 assists to his name. He has been man of the match in 6 of the last 10 games. The much hyped battle between Pastore and the Belgian threw up one clear winner.

Lyon’s season is not a failure

Amidst all the happenings in Ligue 1, the Coupe De France final between US Quevilly and Lyon took place at the Stade De France on Saturday night. Much to the disappointment of all the romantics, Lyon ran out 1-0 winners and deservedly so. Unlike the League Cup final two weeks ago, this was a much more open affair and Lyon deservedly took the lead a minute before the half hour mark through the in-form Lisandro Lopez. They had chances to double or triple the lead in the first half itself.

Quevilly showed more attacking intent in the second half and Lyon nearly paid for their lack of killer instinct as Hugo Lloris had to make a couple of acrobatic saves in the second half. But Lyon held on to end their four-year trophy drought and give Remi Garde his first trophy. But their primary ambition remains securing third place to ensure Champions League football next season. With a mountain of debt to contend with, failure to secure CL football may force them to sell their big earners like Yoann Gourcuff and Lisandro Lopez. But with Lille in red-hot form, it may be a bridge too far this time around, and their 13 year-long stint in Europe’s premier club competition may just be coming to an end.

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Written byAi??Chaitanya Lakkapragada

Tags: Ligue 1

French Ligue 1 Special: Lyon, Montpellier And Hazard Show Winning Class

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