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On Saturday, the penultimate matches of the French "Ligue 1" championship were played. The "Lyon" team, who had already secured the champion's title, suffered a crushing defeat against the weakest lineup in "Lille", which strengthened its position in the fight for the right to play in the UEFA Champions League.
The "Lille" players left no chance for the second team of the "Ligue 1" champions and won with a score of 4-0. Peter Odemwingie scored two goals for the winners, while Geoffrey Dernis and Jean Makoun added one each. Following this victory, "Lille" moved to the third place, leading "Marseille" by two points and "Rennes" by three points before the last round.
"Marseille" had the same number of points as "Lille" before this round, but on Saturday they played a draw against the team that will be leaving "Ligue 1", "Strasbourg". After Samir Nasri's goal in the 47th minute, "Marseille" took the lead, but later "Strasbourg" scored two goals without a response and took the lead. Marseille's club managed to secure a point with a goal from Franck Ribery in the 72nd minute.
"Rennes" also played a draw in this round and still has theoretical possibilities to fight for a place in the Champions League in the final round. Playing a goalless draw with the "Saint-Etienne" team, "Rennes" players will need to win next week by a very wide margin and hope that their closest rivals, "Marseille" and "Lille", will be defeated.
"Monaco" lost all chances to qualify for the next season's UEFA competitions, as they played a high-scoring draw of 3-3 with the "Toulouse" team on Saturday. It is worth mentioning that after Ernesto Chevanton's successful performance at the end of the season, "Monaco" led 3-1 in the second half, but in the last ten minutes managed to concede two goals and lose two very valuable points.
The French Cup winners of last week, "P.S.G", unexpectedly suffered a defeat at home, losing 2-4 to the underdog, "Ajaccio". However, this loss did not have a significant impact on the Paris club, as by winning the French Cup, the "P.S.G" players also earned the right to play in the UEFA Cup tournament next season.
Results of the 37th round:
3 - 3 " "
31' [1 - 0] Santos
38' [1 - 1] Serge Gakpe
40' [1 - 2] Manuel Dos Santos
56' [1 - 3] Javier Ernesto Chevanton
82' [2 - 3] Daniel Moreira
88' [3 - 3] Nicolas Dieuze
2 - 2 " "
47' [1 - 0] Samir Nasri
51' [1 - 1] Yacine Abdessadki
67' [1 - 2] Rudy Carlier
72' [2 - 2] Franck Ribery
4 - 0 " "
35' [1 - 0] Geofrey Dernis
49' [2 - 0] Peter Odemwingie
51' [3 - 0] Peter Odemwingie
85' [4 - 0] Jean Makoun
0 - 1 " "
76' [0 - 1] Jean-Claude Darcheville
2 - 1 " "
21' [0 - 1] Laurent Agouazzi
56' [1 - 1] Sammy Traore
64' [2 - 1] David Bellion
0 - 0 " "
1 - 1 " "
18' [1 - 0] Rabiu Afolabi
90' [1 - 1] Sebastien Grax
2 - 4 " "
20' [0 - 1] Kamel Chafni
30' [1 - 1] Mario Yepes
51' [2 - 1] Pedro Pauleta
56' [2 - 2] Djamel Abdoun
59' [2 - 3] Kamel Chafni
90' [2 - 4] Mathieu Scarpelli
1 - 3 " "
18' [0 - 1] Luigi Pieroni
40' [0 - 2] Yann Lachuer
86' [1 - 2] Andre Luiz
90' [1 - 3] Thomas Kahlenberg
0 - 0 " "
Top scorers:
(Place, player, goals)
1. Pedro Pauleta ("P.S.G") 21
2. Peter Odemwingie ("Lille") 14
3. Daniel Cousin ("Lens") 13
4. Sylvain Wiltord ("Lyon") 12
5-7. John Utaka ("Rennes")11
Araujo Ilan ("Sochaux") 11
Fred ("Lyon") 11
8-10. Peguy Luyindula ("Auxerre") 10
Luigi Pieroni ("Auxerre") 10
Mamadou Niang ("Marseille") 10
League table:
