The tops
- Köhn, the decisive end of the match
He had a quiet start to the game. For a little less than an hour, he had almost nothing to do. But when Monaco needed him (ten against eleven), he responded. Philipp Köhn showed off his qualities to frustrate the Rennais. He first made a reflex save on a powerful header from Arthur Theate (79th). And if he was unable to do anything on the penalty which allowed Rennes to reduce the score, the Swiss repelled an attempt from Amine Gouiri (90th + 1) before diverting a powerful strike from the young Mohamadou Nagida, (90th+2). The three points brought back by Monaco are also thanks to him. And yet his first period had been very quiet.
He is the most expensive player in the history of Strasbourg. And on Sunday, he capsized La Meinau after added time. By scoring in the 90th + 6, Abakar Sylla gave another look to the Racing week, already capable of snatching a point from Brest on Thursday. As the Opta statistician points out, there had never been a goal this late in Ligue 1 this season (96 minutes and 17 seconds). There had never been one in favor of Racing since the 2006/2007 season either.
If there is a specialist in winning coaching in Ligue 1, it is Eric Roy. Sunday, during the trip from Brest to Metz (0-1), the technician of the Breton club chose not to start Jérémy Le Douaron, who scored in the middle of the week against Strasbourg after an assist from Kamory Doumbia. While SB29 was floundering at Saint-Symphorien, the coach decided to start his attacker on the hour mark, as well as the Malian ten minutes later. And in the 75th minute, Le Douaron opened the scoring with a pass from… Doumbia. This is the fifth time this season that a Brest player has scored after coming on. A real specialty.
- Marseille is Brazil
It didn’t pay off. But with two gestures, the Marseillais offered a little thrill to L1 lovers. Confident after his new goal, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang first attempted a sort of pigeon wing which almost deceived Yvon Mvogo (27th). And a few minutes later, it was Samuel Gigot who put on the show. On a pass from Jordan Veretout, the Marseille defender placed a right heel to push Mvogo to concede the corner which led to the third goal. If they were not paid directly for these actions, all this proves to what extent Gennaro Gattuso’s OM is liberated.
- Lyon executives finally there
Pointed out for months, OL executives did the job this Sunday against Toulouse (3-0). First there was Alexandre Lacazette, who took care of almost everything while scoring a hat-trick. But the “General” was not alone. In goal, Anthony Lopes took his first penalty at Groupama Stadium to make up for his uncontrolled exit. And in the middle, Corentin Tolisso did good by bringing his impact and his calm while the activity of Maxence Caqueret was valuable. With executives there, Lyon does not have the same face.
The flops
- The passivity of the Rennes defense
It’s a recurring problem this season: Stade Rennais is let down by its defense. Regularly victim of individual errors from its young defenders and after having already seen Enzo Le Fée then Adrien Truffert clumsily deflect the ball on the opening of the Monegasque score, the Breton club this time saw its rearguard recall its flaws after the break. In numerical superiority, the Rouge et Noir showed a disconcerting defensive passivity to allow Youssouf Fofana to approach sixteen meters and score at ground level as if on parade (0-2, 84th). “We should never take this second goal at 11 against 10. But it’s one of the mistakes we’ve been making since the start of the season“, annoyed Enzo Le Fée on Prime Video at the end of the meeting.
- Aerial duels, this misidentified PSG
This is a major concern that everyone has identified, in L1 but also in Europe: PSG suffers in aerial duels. We are thus talking about the worst team in the Champions League in this area. And in the league, only Nantes and Metz have lost more aerial duels than PSG this season (46.1%). A real problem for Luis Enrique, who again saw his team give in from a corner this Saturday against Nantes on a header from Mohamed to equalize (1-1). So of course, Paris was able to go for the victory behind but it is a flaw in the Parisian game. And these are the kind of details that could be paid for in cash in the long term or even against Dortmund this Wednesday.
“Ekitike is a Ben Arfa situation but ten years younger”
- Diouf, the big dumpling
He sat for many minutes on the lawn of the Allianz-Arena. Yehvann Diouf had all the difficulty in the world to recover from a serious hand fault, on a seemingly harmless shot from Jérémie Boga. The ball slipped through his fingers and the Reims goalkeeper ultimately had a large share of responsibility in his team’s defeat in Nice (2-1). This, while he had been decisive a few moments earlier in front of Jean-Clair Todibo. A costly mistake.
It’s a bad habit that Ligue 1 cannot manage to break. Since the start of the season, there have been few days without empty matches. The 15th round did not really stand out, quite the contrary, since the Montpellier – Lens and Clermont – Lille matches did not offer the slightest goal. In total, since the start of this exercise, no less than 18 oppositions have resulted in a 0-0. Not ideal for promoting Ligue 1…