After the defeats of PSG and Rennes on Friday, respectively against Monaco and Bordeaux, and the seventh defeat in a row for Saint-Etienne, beaten on Saturday in Brest, the 11e Ligue 1 day, Sunday, November 22, saw Lille relaunch to the top of the standings, Lyon climb on the podium for the first time this season, along with Montpellier which also comes back to Monaco. At the other end of the standings, Dijon, dead last, has lost again. His goalkeeper, author of a big mistake, can bite his gloves.
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Lille outclasses Lorient
Perfect evening for Lille! After three unsuccessful matches in L1 and a hectic week behind the scenes – coach Christophe Galtier worried about the prolonged absence of Luis Campos, advisor to President Gérard Lopez, at odds with general manager Marc Ingla – le Losc, yet deprived of Renato Sanches, José Fonte and Burak Yilmaz, finally regret the victory, and with the manner: a demonstration against Lorient illuminated by the flashes of genius of the Turkish Yusuf Yazici.
The striker, already author of two triplets this season in the Europa League, scored his first double in Ligue 1 with two nice kicks (29e, 51e), before delivering an assist on the third goal, signed Luiz Araujo (57e). To complete the festival, Canadian rookie Jonathan David has finally unlocked his L1 goal counter (89e) after ten matches of silence in attack.
This convincing success allows Lille (2e, 22 points) to retain his place as runner-up to Paris SG and even come back only two points behind the reigning French champions. The Lorientais, for their part, fell back one row and now occupy the place of barrage (18e, 8 points), a worrying status for a team overtaken by the Lille speed.
Lyon discovers the podium
After a complicated start to the season – they occupied fourteenth place at the end of the first six days – the Lyonnais continue their good streak of four wins in five games and reach the podium for the first time this season.
Already hero of the derby at the beginning of November against Saint-Etienne (2-1) with a double, Tino Kadewere again played the saviors with a nice sequence of chest control and strikes (1-0, 78e minute) which settled a meeting so far difficult for the Lyonnais against Angers.
Rudi Garcia’s men (20 points) took advantage of the Rennes defeat and the postponement of the match between Marseille and Nice to take third place in the standings behind PSG and Lille.
Montpellier back in the top quartet
Spectacular winner of Strasbourg (4-3), Montpellier invited Sunday for the 11e day at the top of the ranking. At the Mosson stadium, Montpellier and Strasbourg surrendered blow for blow in an unbridled meeting, where the MHSC ended up being rewarded.
Montpellier quickly took two goals in advance thanks to Pedro Mendes receiving a corner (1-0, 8e) then thanks to a header from Andy Delort with a header placed flush with the post (2-0, 13e), but the Alsatians responded on two penalties from Kenny Lala (2-1, 22e) and Habib Diallo (2-2, 26e).
A double from Delort allowed the Hérault residents to take the lead (3-2, 32e) before Ludovic Ajorque, forgotten in the area, equalizes for Strasbourg (3-3, 45e). In the second half, only Gaëtan Laborde found the nets of a volley executed from the entrance to the area (4-3, 68e) to give the victory to Montpellier which is fourth in the standings, tied on points with Lyon and Monaco. Strasbourg, for its part, lost for the third time in a row and occupied the 19e place of the classification (6 points).
Dijon can’t do it
It is one of the gagged goals of the weekend: the Swiss goalkeeper of Dijon, Anthony Racioppi, precipitated the defeat of his people against Lens (1-0) on an inexplicably missed recovery. Racioppi, the ball in his feet, found himself under the pressing of Arnaud Kalimuendo. He tried to hook it, but missed and cleared in disaster on the leg of the Lensois striker … lucky author of his very first goal in L1 (1-0, 23e).
With this setback, Dijon retains its place of red lantern with only four points taken in eleven games. The Dijonnais are four points behind the barrage Lorient. For its part, Lens took advantage of this first victory since October 3 to regain the first part of the ranking (9e, 17 points).
Nantes continues to skate
For Nantes, impossible to chain two victories in a row since the start of the season: Christian Gourcuff’s team, however victorious before the truce and attractive Sunday in the game, stumbled against Metz (1-1), who maintained his unbeaten streak with an eighth unbeaten game in Ligue 1.
At the Beaujoire stadium, the Nantes people opened the scoring by Randal Kolo Muani with a tense shot under the bar (1-0, 29e). But after resorting to video arbitration, a loose hand of defender Fabio in his area cost the Canaries a penalty, transformed by the Belgian Aaron Leya Iseka for Metz (1-1, 45e + 4).
The Nantes people (14es, 12 points) thus miss the opportunity to widen the gap on the other poorly classified and find themselves followed by Nîmes (15e, 11 points), who won a precious 1-0 victory in Reims (17e, 9 points) on a penalty converted by Renaud Ripart (62e) and despite two Reims attempts on the crossbar at the end of the match.
The match between Marseille and Nice, scheduled for Saturday evening, was postponed due to the unavailability of many Nice players diagnosed positive for Covid-19.
