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28 March 2024

Montpellier, Lyon keep pressure on PSG

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By AFP

Montpellier and Lyon kept the pressure on big-spending Paris Saint Germain with starkly contrasting wins on Saturday but there were no birthday celebrations for under-pressure Marseille coach Didier Deschamps.

Lyon kept the wheels firmly on their bid for an eighth championship in 12 years at their Stade Gerland, meting out a 3-1 defeat to bottom club Nancy, the damage inflicted in the space of five first half minutes.

Brazilian Michel Bastos bagged a double with Bafetimbi Gomis adding a third to earn Remi Garde’s men their sixth win of the campaign and gave them the perfect preparation for their Champions League assignment at Real Madrid next week.

That put them up to third on goal difference with PSG, in action against struggling promoted Corsican outfit Ajaccio on Sunday, on 20 points.

Montpellier also moved on to 20 points, above Lyon on goal difference, with a come from behind 5-3 defeat of gutsy first division newcomers Dijon.

Dijon appeared to be heading for a notable scalp after Benjamin Corgnet’s double, helped in no small part by slack defending, gave them a 2-0 lead with only 11 minutes on the clock.

But Montpellier reinforced their claims on the 2011/2012 title race by digging deep to come away with three seemingly unlikely but precious points.

They opened their account via Steven Paulle’s own goal on 27 minutes, with striker Olivier Giroud levelling five minutes after the break.

Shortly after Dijon’s Abdoulaye Bamba felled new recruit Henri Bedimo resulting in a penalty converted by Giroud to give Montpellier the lead for the first time.

Souleymane Camara after the hour mark and Giroud’s third eight minutes from time rounded off an excellent night’s work for Montpellier.

This was 25-year-old Giroud’s first hat-trick in the top flight and it pushed him up to the seven goal mark for the seven, top scorer so far this season with Gomis.

Dijon displayed an admirable fighting ethos of their own by reducing the deficit with an injury time goal from Thomas Guerbert.

“It upset me to be two goals behind after 10 minutes,” Montpellier manager Rene Giarard said.

“We have to control things better than we’re doing at the moment. It made it an exciting match, but as a coach I can’t be satisfied with that.”

Lille, who welcome Inter Milan in the Champions League next week, climbed one place to fourth, on 19 points, courtesy of an emphatic 3-1 victory at Auxerre.

Dennis Oliech gave the home side a first half lead with reigning champions Lille blasting back with three goals inside the last 20 minutes from Dimitri Payet, Polish striker Ireneusz Jelen and a penalty from Mathieu Debuchy.

Marseille coach Didier Deschamps meanwhile was hoping to celebrate his 43rd birthday with a much needed victory at Toulouse but it wasn’t to be with his underperforming 2010 champions coming away with a goalless draw.

Their cause was hardly helped by the 59th minute red card dished out to Charles Kabore - not the best warm up for Arsenal’s visit to the Stade Velodrome on Wednesday.

The stalemate left Marseille, with only one win to their credit this campaign, hovering two points above the drop zone, while Toulouse are fifth, two points off the summit.

Deschamps reflected: “It wasn’t easy and being reduced to 10 players made it even harder...I can’t say I’m happy but at least we came away with a point. We were relatively solid but we missed pace on the attack. We are capable of better.”

Elsewhere Saint Etienne ended a seven match winless run with a much-needed 2-1 win at Evian, while Brest were held 1-1 by Caen.

Nice ran out easy 3-0 winners over visitors Bordeaux in Saturday’s late game.

Aside from PSG, Sunday’s action sees second-from bottom Valenciennes host Sochaux and Lorient visit regional rivals Rennes.