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Over the weekend in France, as usual, the country's "Ligue 1" football championship matches took place. On Saturday, seven matches of the 16th round were played.
In this round, defending champions "Lyon" secured their 14th victory of the season. This time, Lyon's footballers defeated the "Le Mans" club with a lone goal advantage away from home. The decisive goal of the match was scored in the 57th minute by Sylvain Wiltord, a recently recovered striker from the French national team.
The victorious journey in this round was continued by the "Lens" club, which solidified their second position. This time, the Lano team hosted last season's vice-champion "Bordeaux" and convincingly beat them 3-0 at home. The goals for the winners were scored by Vitorino Hilton, Daniel Cousin, and Issam Jemaa. After this victory, "Lens" now has 29 points and occupies the second position in the standings.
The most important victory on Saturday was achieved by the most titled French club, "Saint-Etienne", who defeated newcomer "Lorient" 2-0 at home and temporarily rose to the third position, granting the right to compete in the UEFA Champions League tournament. The goals in this match were scored by Czech national team striker Marek Heinz and one of the team's attacking leaders, Frederic Piquionne.
The crisis-stricken "Monaco" club finally secured a comfortable victory in this season, defeating newcomer "Valenciennes" 3-0 at home. The monkish team, balancing on the brink of the relegation zone, climbed to the 16th position. The goals for Monaco were scored by the team's newcomer Yaya Toure in the first half and Serge Gakpe and Jan Koller in the second half.
The "Rennes" team is gradually finding their game and joining the fight for places in European tournaments. In this round, "Rennes" defeated bottom club "Nantes" 2-0 at home and with 20 points climbed to the 10th position in the table. The goals for the winners were scored by Mario Melchiot and Bruno Cheyrou in the 40th and 81st minutes respectively.
Results of Saturday's matches:
0 - 1
57` [0 - 1] Sylvain Wiltord
1 - 2
39` [0 - 1] Georges Ba
70` [0 - 2] Gael Danic
72` [1 - 2] Gregory Pujol
67` Morgan Amalfitano ("Sedan") sent off
2 - 0
40` [1 - 0] Mario Melchiot
81` [2 - 0] Bruno Cheyrou
3 - 0
37` [1 - 0] Yaya Toure
46` [2 - 0] Serge Gakpe
63` [3 - 0] Jan Koller
3 - 0
40` [1 - 0] Vitorino Hilton
59` [2 - 0] Daniel Cousin
88` [3 - 0] Issam Jemaa
0 - 0
2 - 0
51` [1 - 0] Marek Heinz
66` [2 - 0] Frederic Piquionne
League table
