In France, four matches of the eighth round were played. The first of them saw the battle between "Marseille", who sold their leader during the offseason, and the newcomer "Angers". Despite Michel's pupils pressing their opponents and controlling the ball for 70% of the time, Anzhe started the season well and made good use of set pieces. At the end of the first half, Thomas Mangani successfully converted a penalty, and in the 70th minute, Romain Thomas scored with a header after a penalty kick. Michy Batshuayi also scored from the penalty spot, but "Marseille" suffered another defeat. Meanwhile, mid-table "Monaco" players played a 3-3 draw against "Guingamp". Interestingly, Leonardo Jardim's team took the lead three times, but the opponents always found responses. Nicolas Benezet stood out with a great performance, scoring a brace and providing an assist for his team's first goal. In yesterday's match, one of the leaders "Saint-Etienne" unexpectedly lost at home to "Nice". The game was quite unusual. Despite having more control of the ball, the visitors led 3-1 after the first half and started to dominate even more in the second half. In the 62nd minute, Nampalys Mendy received a red card, but "Saint-Etienne" couldn't take advantage of the numerical superiority. In the 81st minute, another "Nice" player Maxime Le Marchandas was sent off, but Jean-Christophe Bahebeck failed to convert an 11-meter penalty kick. Thus, with nine players, Nice won the game 4-1. Results: "Marseille" 1 - 2 "Angers" [0-1] 38' Thomas Mangani (from the penalty spot) [0-2] 70' Romain Thomas [1-2] 79' Michy Batshuayi (from the penalty spot) "Guingamp" 3 - 3 "Monaco" [0-1] 14' Bernardo Silva [1-1] 30' Sloan Privat [1-2] 45' Andrea Raggi [2-2] 65' Nicolas Benezet [2-3] 71' Nabil Dirar [3-3] 89' Nicolas Benezet "Montpellier" 2 - 1 "Lorient" [1-0] 7' Remy Bensebaini [1-1] 48' Rafidine Abdullah [2-1] 57' Jonas Martin 90' Rafidine Abdullah ("Lorient") sent off "Saint-Etienne" 1 - 4 "Nice" [0-1] 5' Vincent Koziello [1-1] 19' Loic Perrin [1-2] 39' Hatem Ben Arfa [1-3] 45' Hatem Ben Arfa [1-4] 53' Jean Michael Seri 62' Nampalys Mendy ("Nice") sent off 81' Maxime Le Manchard ("Nice") sent off 83' Jean-Cristophe Bahebeck missed a penalty
