football - Ligue 1 - Olympique Lyonnais - Paris - sport

Monaco slows down Marseille; St Etienne upsets PSG

Sunday 21 September 2008

Marseille could only manage a 0-0 home draw with Monaco in Ligue 1 on Sunday and thus lost ground behind leaders Olympique Lyon. Saint Etienne left the relegation zone with its defeat of Paris-Saint Germain.

Saint Etienne shocked Paris Saint Germain with a 1-0 victory thanks to Mouhamadou Dabo to cap a fine week though Marseille missed their chance to gain ground on French league leaders Lyon on Sunday.

Dabo's 15th-minute goal at the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium was enough to lift St Etienne out of the relegation zone and put a dampener on PSG's hopeful start to the season following last year's lengthy fight against relegation.

Marseille, looking tired, could only draw 0-0 at home to Monaco late on Sunday following their midweek Champions League 2-1 defeat to Liverpool.

The Stade Velodrome club were impotent going forward and also had the misfortune to come up against in-form Monaco keeper Stephane Ruffier who made a series of fine saves.

Marseille lost ground on seven-times reigning champions Lyon, who now lead by four points from the second-placed Riviera club following Saturday's 1-0 win at Le Havre.

On St Etienne's victory, PSG coach Paul Le Guen said: "Dabo's goal put St Etienne back in the match.

"They deserved their win even if we had some bad luck at times when we could have got a penalty for a foul on Guillaume Hoarau, and Ludovic Giuly was in a very good position which was unfairly ruled offside.

"We did everything we could to win the match but we made too many technical errors and lost too many easy balls although we had started the match very well.

"When you feel that there is the possibility to do something in a match and things run away from you in this way, it's annoying and frustrating. We will need to bounce back very quickly and we have matches soon against Monaco and Grenoble."

Both PSG and St Etienne had done well in midweek European action, with the Parisians winning 2-1 at Turkish club Kayserispor and St Etienne winning by the same scoreline at Hapoel Tel-Aviv in UEFA Cup first round, first leg fixtures.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Brazilian Ederson scored a penalty for Lyon in their 1-0 home win over Le Havre while nine-man Bordeaux also won.

Lyon's win meant they could finally put behind them a busy week following a controversial victory over Nice last weekend and conceding a draw at home to Fiorentina in midweek Champions League action.

Lyon had to play the final spell without Sidney Govou however after he was sent off for a second yellow card midway through the second half.

Lyon coach Claude Puel said afterwards: "It was a very good result and the team showed a lot of spirit. Le Havre is a team which does well going forward which is one of the key aspects of the sport.

"We knew they would push forward and you never quite knew what would happen on each attack but we defended well."

Bordeaux's emotional week continued, following their midweek Champions League 4-0 thrashing by Chelsea, as they finished with nine men at promoted Grenoble but won 1-0 thanks to an 81st minute goal by Brazilian attacking midfielder Jussie.

Alou Diarra and Wendel were sent off just after the break though Martial Robin of Grenoble also got a red card in the 90th minute.