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Over the weekend, as usual in French stadiums, the "Ligue 1" championship battles were boiling - matches of the 18th round were played.
The central match of the round took place on Sunday, where the championship leader "Lyon" and the second-placed team "Lens" met in the city of Lyon. Despite expectations to see a beautiful and fierce battle, "Lyon" demonstrated their superiority from the beginning of the match and defeated their opponents 4-0. The first goal for the winners was scored by the Brazilian Juninho in the 23rd minute. Ten minutes later, Florent Malouda doubled the score for the home team, and in the second half, goals were scored by Cris and Juninho, who added another goal to his account.
Despite this defeat, "Lens" continues to hold the second place in the standings. Meanwhile, the "Saint-Etienne" club moved up to third place after this round, crushing the newcomer "Valenciennes" 3-0 at home on Saturday. The goals for the winners were scored by the attacking leaders of the team, Ilan and Pascal Feindouno, with Christophe Landrin adding another one.
With a similar result on Saturday, "Nancy" team also lost to their opponents and the "Marseille" club, who has been associated with poor results lately and changes in the coach position. The French press reported that one of the possible candidates to replace the head coach of "Marseille", Jean Fernandez, is the former coach of the England national team, the Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson. Currently, the Marseille team with 27 points occupies only the 7th place and is already 22 points behind the leader "Lyon".
Following a very poor start to the season, the "Monaco" team seems to be recovering little by little. This weekend, the principality team hosted the recently performing well "Sochaux" club at home and easily defeated them 3-0. The hosts took the lead in the 6th minute when the Croatian national team goalkeeper Jerko Leko scored a goal. In the second half, about 15 minutes in, the young Jeremy Menez doubled Monaco's lead, and at the end of the match, Yaya Toure scored another goal for his team this season.
The points are being distributed by the Parisian "P.S.G" club. This time, the capital's team hosted one of the championship's underdogs, the "Nice" club, but failed to break down their defense - the match ended in a goalless draw. After these matches, both teams maintained their positions from before this round - "P.S.G" stayed in 15th place, and "Nice" in 17th place in the standings.
Results of the 18th round:
- 2 - 0
- 44' [1 - 0] Benjamin Gavanon
- 71' [2 - 0] Diaz Kim
- 2 - 0
- 28' [1 - 0] Gregory Pujol
- 31' [2 - 0] Nicolas Marin
- 3 - 0
- 36' [1 - 0] Ilan
- 80' [2 - 0] Pascal Feindouno
- 84' [3 - 0] Christophe Landrin
- 1 - 1
- 6' [0 - 1] David Gigliotti
- 72' [1 - 1] Jimmy Briand
- 3 - 0
- 6' [1 - 0] Jerko Leko
- 59' [2 - 0] Jeremy Menez
- 88' [3 - 0] Yaya Toure
- 0 - 0
- 2 - 0
- 31' [1 - 0] Marco Basa
- 76' [2 - 0] Koffi Romaric N'dri
- 0 - 0
- 2 - 1
- 14' [0 - 1] Pierre-Andre Gignac
- 22' [1 - 1] Kanga Akale
- 54' [2 - 1] Ireneusz Jelen
- 0 - 4
- 23' [0 - 1] Juninho
- 34' [0 - 2] Florent Malouda
- 51' [0 - 3] Cris
- 62' [0 - 4] Juninho
Top scorers:
1. Ismael Bangoura ("Le Mans") 8
2-8. Aruna Dindane ("Lens") 7
Mathieu Bodmer ("Lille") 7
Juninho ("Lyon") 7
Florent Malouda ("Lyon") 7
Pedro Pauleta ("P.S.G") 7
Pascal Feindouno ("Saint-Etienne") 7
Ilan ("Saint-Etienne") 7
9-10. Jean-Claude Darcheville ("Bordeaux") 6
Peter Odemwingie ("Lille") 6
League table:
