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On Saturday, six matches of the fifth round of France's "Ligue 1" championship were played. Five matches of this round took place on Wednesday, and the remaining two matches will be played on Sunday evening.
The first matches of this round were played earlier than usual - on Wednesday evening, Lille met with the local team "Lille", who are playing in the UEFA Champions League this season, and the mid-table team Toulouse. The match, which was fairly uneventful, ended in a goalless draw.
The first setback in the tournament on Saturday was experienced by the reigning champions Paris Saint Germain, who unexpectedly had to concede a 1-2 defeat to "Nice" on their home turf. The Parisians took an early lead in the 2nd minute after a goal by Pedro Pauleta, but later conceded two goals and had to acknowledge their opponent's superiority. Furthermore, in the 90th minute, Sylvain Armand also received a red card and was sent off the field.
Unable to secure another victory were also "Marseille", who remain an underdog in the tournament. Having impressively defeated Deportivo La Coruna earlier this week and winning the Intertoto Cup, Marseille continued to drop points in their country's championship - this time Marseille's players could only manage a 1-1 draw with the team of "Ajaccio".
Following the goal flood in the previous round, when Lens thrashed Auxerre 7-0 on their home ground, a similar goal fiesta was gifted to their fans this weekend by "Nancy", a newcomer to Ligue 1, who surprisingly easily defeated "Rennes", the 4th-placed team in the previous competition, by a score of 6-0. Elie Kroupi, a representative of the Ivory Coast, scored three goals for the winners.
Continuing to perform successfully after a year-long break in Ligue 1, "Le Mans" secured their first victory in the championship by defeating another newcomer "Troyes" with a 1-0 result this weekend. The remaining Saturday matches ended in draws with a score of 0-0. This was the case for "Strasbourg" and "Bordeaux", "Saint-Etienne" and "Sochaux", as well as "Nantes" and "Metz".
League Table
All the results of the 5th round:
0 - 0
1 - 1
60' [1 - 0] Christian Gimenez
88' [1 - 1] Rafic Saifi (from penalty spot)
0 - 0
0 - 0
51' Araujo Ilan ("Sochaux") sent off
1 - 2
2' [1 - 0] Pedro Pauleta
72' [1 - 1] Sammy Traore
89' [1 - 2] Mamadou Bagayoko
90' Sylvain Armand ("P.S.G") sent off
0 - 0
6 - 0
15' [1 - 0] Elie Kroupi
30' [2 - 0] Elie Kroupi
35' [3 - 0] Alain Rochat (own goal)
45' [4 - 0] Pape Diakhate
72' [5 - 0] Elie Kroupi (from penalty spot)
84' [6 - 0] Sebastien Puygrenier
1 - 0
43' [1 - 0] Olivier Thomas
Top scorers:
(Place, player, goals)
1. Pedro Pauleta (Paris Saint Germain) 4
2-6. Vinicius De Melo (Le Mans) 3
John Carew (Lyon) 3
Elie Kroupi (Nancy) 3
Sammy Traore (Nice) 3
Sebastien Dallet (Troyes) 3
7-10. Romain Rocchi (Ajaccio) 2
Rafik Saifi (Ajaccio) 2
Luigi Pieroni (Auxerre) 2
Olivier Thomert (Lens) 2
