Waris The Love: Majeed Magic sees Valenciennes beat Evian #FFWTOTW

Waris

A fascinating weekend of Ligue 1 action is over, at the end of which the positions have barely changed in the table, but the results may yet have a huge bearing on how the rest of the season pans out.

Result of the weekend must surely go to third-bottom Valenciennes, with their 1-0 win, away to fourth-bottom Evian (Waris scoring the winner with his sixth goal in ten since arriving in January – only Zlatan has had a better goalscoring 2014). A defeat may well have given them too much to do in the fight to stay up. But the win means that they are only two points behind Pascal Dupraz’s men.

Alarm bells will be ringing that bit louder for Rennes now. Their spirited but ultimately disappointing 3-2 defeat at home to Toulouse means that they are now only three points ahead of Valenciennes. They also have arguably the toughest run-in of any of the teams near the bottom. Not sure if the old “too good to go down” cliché is known in France, but we have a couple of worried Rennais at FFW Towers who will be chanting it as a mantra for the next couple of months.

And let’s not forget Sochaux. Another win for them, 2-0 over Lorient – their fourth in the last seven – keeps them three points behind Valenciennes. Perhaps they have given themselves too much to do, but Renard’s men will certainly keep fighting to the end.

Sadly, Ajaccio continue to head inexorably to the Ligue 1 trapdoor. Despite taking an early lead at home to Guingamp, they went down 2-1, in the process giving Jocelyn Gourvennec’s men a little breathing space of their own in the relegation scrap.

Nantes’ poor 2014 means that they cannot consider themselves safe by any means. All things considered, they’ll probably be happy enough with a point from an unsurprisingly uninspiring 0-0 draw at Lille. A point for Les Dogues which was matched by Marseille, who put the brakes on their recent run of defeats with a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Reims.

A point apiece which on Sunday morning looked disappointing for Lille and Marseille. But by Sunday night they didn’t look so bad, after their big rivals for the European places, Lyon and Saint-Etienne, suffered defeats to the top two. Lyon fought manfully but gave themselves too much to do as they went down 3-2 to Monaco (all three of whose goals were probably offside, as referee Fautrel admitted after the match). And Saint-Etienne failed to match last year’s surprise win at the Parc des Princes, conceding a Zlatan brace and losing 2-0 to PSG, who remain eight points clear of the Monegasques. Zlatan’s two goals take his tally for the season, in all competitions, to 40 – a new record for a PSG player, beating Carlos Bianchi of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame.

Elsewhere, Nice’s second consecutive win, this time 2-0 at home to Bastia, ended any lingering relegation fears that they might have had. And Montpellier and Bordeaux played out a less-than-thrilling 1-1 draw. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and blame the Sunday afternoon Mediterranean heat.

This week’s player of the week, for literally leading from the front in inspiring his team to such an important win, is Valenciennes’ Majeed Waris. Joining him in the equipe type are:

FFW TOTW 29

On to goals of the week now. We’re tempted to include Berbatov’s goal for Monaco, simply because when Berba breaks into a sprint that sees him beat an offside trap, that is worthy of attention. Honourable mention, too, for Alexy Bosetti’s opener for Nice, set up by a superb ball from full back Thimothée Kolodziejczak. Guingamp’s first, from Yatabaré, also came from a great run and pass from Sankharé.

In third place is Serge Aurier’s what-proved-to-be-the-winner for Toulouse against Rennes. Firstly because we can’t go a week without giving him some kind of special attention; and secondly because the build-up to his finish, from Clement Chantôme and particularly from Wissam Ben Yedder, carrying on from where he left off last week with his excellent footwork and close control, was fabulous.

In second place is Antoine Devaux’s bullet header for Reims against Marseille. Franck Signorino swung in an excellent cross from the left and Devaux, without bothering to jump (why should he – he was unmarked on the penalty spot…) connected powerfully to send the ball into Mandanda’s top corner.

This week’s winner (not often they’ve heard that word recently) is Ajaccio’s Paul Lasne. A lovely lay-off from Gadji Tallo saw Lasne receive the ball just outside the area on the right hand side and he hit a sweet first-time shot which curled low past Samassa into the net, giving the Corsicans five minutes of unbridled joy. Till Guingamp equalised and it all went poire-shaped again.

Tune in next week for Matchday 30. Having beaten one fomer bête noire, Saint-Etienne, this week, PSG will be looking to do the same to Lorient next week. We have the depressedico between Marseille and Rennes on Saturday – let’s hide all the sharp knives before the match as I don’t think the losers will be very happy… Valenciennes will hope to continue their Great Escape as Ajaccio visit. And we finish with a match between second and third as Monaco welcome Lille, hoping to avenge their 2-0 defeat from earlier this season. As ever, stay tuned to @FrenchFtWeekly and @FFW_Live for coverage.

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