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French Ligue1: Lille mounting strong challenge

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The battle for the French Ligue1 title is now taking some audacious twists and turns and Lille are mounting a great surge to tip the balance of the French Ligue.
After the 14th round of fixtures in Ligue 1, there is yet another new leader in the table. Toulouse, Rennes, St Etienne and Brest all had their shot at topping the table in recent weeks but they have recently been held
back by the weakest teams in the leagues. As these teams toppled slowly, Lille was making some great progress and after a third straight win, they are now leading the French Ligue1. Maintaining this standing is still a very tough task for Lille as only two
points divide the top 8 teams in the standings.
Belgian international Eden Hazard continues to impress with Lille as his cheeky flick set up Pierre-Alain Frau for a 20 yard screamer that opened up Lille’s account against Monaco. Then in the 55th minute, Lille conceded
thanks to a beautiful overhead kick by Adriano. Eden Hazard is already on everyone’s radar these days and the 19 year old couldn’t be kept quiet and he made yet another assist for Ludovic Obraniak who drilled in a low shot to score the winning goal. The win
took Lille to the top of the Ligue1 standings but Coach Rudi Garcia quickly played down his side’s chances of winning the title this season.
Montpellier moves to 2nd after winning their seventh game of the season. That’s more wins than any side so far this season. The side doesn’t draw too many matches and they needed just one late goal to beat Nice, thanks
to a header by Olivier Giroud.
Paris St Germain beat Caen to send the team down in the relegation zone and maintained their 3rd place in the table. Guillaume Hoarau scored the opener in the 40th minute and then Turkish international Mevlut
Erding scored a brilliant goal, almost the same way Dennis Bergkamp scored in the 1998 World Cup against Argentina. Statistically, whenever the Turk scores, PSG always win and they did get the three points even though Youssef El-Arabi scored a late goal. El-Arabi
has now 10 goals for Caen despite his team being in the relegation zone.
Rennes are now level with Paris St Germain with 23 points and a point behind leaders Lille after beating Brest(erstwhile leaders) who are now at 6th. Jires Ekoko put Rennes in front with a great individual effort. Late
in the 2nd period, Jerome Leroy sealed three points for his side with a beautiful 25 yard beauty. Brest pulled a goal back through a penalty from Bruno Gougi but it was too late.
Bordeaux, Marseille and Lyon are the other three teams who are on 22 points and won their respective matches after a dreadful start to their season. Ghana international Andre Ayew gave Marseille the win against Toulouse with a
beautiful and strong header right at the death. Bordeaux were made to work hard against Arles and had to come from behind after Camel Meriem put Arles in front in the first half. Anthony Modeste then converted a penalty before summer signing Yoan Gouffran
tapped in the winner. Modeste then scored two more in the second half to get his first hat trick and Hameur Bouazza scored the final goal of the game for Arles. Arles are now bottom of the table and have a tough campaign ahead.
Lyon struggled against Lens and had to come from behind as Lens led 1-0 at half time. But Lyon equalized after half time through Gomis and then Argentinean Lisandro Lopez gave his side crucial 3 points in virtually the last minute
of the game.
The French Ligue 1 has never looked this exciting before and it is for sure that this season’s title race will surely go down the wire with the top 6 or even top 8 teams having an equal chance to topple their respective opponents.
The table might open up in the mid-season but it will still be a big weekend next week. Three big games are coming up this week with Marseille hosting 2nd placed Montpellier, Lille paying a visit to Bordeaux, a side that is improving and rising
pretty fast and then Lyon take on Paris St German on Sunday.
 

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