Paris Saint-Germain, seeking only their third title and first since 1994, and Lyon are setting the pace in the Ligue 1 after both posted key away successes on Saturday.
With Bordeaux looking to make it three wins out of three against Nice yesterday, it was Marseille who lost ground following a 1-1 draw at Rennes, where the Mediterranean club missed a hat full of chances to make it a three-way overnight tie at the top on seven points with PSG and Lyon.
Marseille ought to have gone top with maximum points, but were denied by a superb performance from Rennes keeper Nicolas Douchez, who repelled everything thrown at him save for a close-range volley from Mamadou Niang seven minutes after the restart.
PHOTO: AFP
Jerome Leroy had slotted home a neatly-taken penalty for Rennes on the half-hour after Suleimane Diawara had handled in the box.
Marseille keeper Steve Mandanda almost gifted Rennes the lead once more on the hour when he initially failed to control a loose ball and nearly let in Ismael Bangoura.
At the other end, Brandao saw Douchez repel a venomous low drive and then excel himself still further with a top-drawer tip over from Fernando Morientes’ point-blank effort before making a diving stop from Niang.
Paris Saint-Germain have spent the years since their last title win in the doldrums, save for occasional domestic cup success, but their repeated lack of success in qualifying for the lucrative Champions League has left the capital club with a financial gulf to bridge.
Peguy Luyindula’s opener and further goals from Mevlut Erding and Christophe Jallet, however, were enough to send Antoine Kombouare’s Parisians joint top with Lyon following a 3-2 win at Valenciennes, for whom Siaka Tiene and Rudy Mater were on target.
Lyon, dethroned by Bordeaux last season after seven unbroken years at the top of the tree, raced past Auxerre 3-0, with Jean-Alain Boumsong, Jean II Makoun and Miralem Pjanic all hitting the net for Claude Puel’s side who steamrollered Anderlecht in their Champions League qualifier first-leg match.
Boumsong said Lyon were again the team to beat.
“Things are going well — this group has a lot of quality,” the France international and former Newcastle United defender said.
Elsewhere, Nancy lost their early leadership of the table as they slid to a 2-1 loss at modest Le Mans.
Monaco, shocked 4-0 last week at Nancy, got back on track with a 2-0 home win over Lorient.
There is no respite for former giants Saint Etienne, who slumped at their Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium to promoted Boulogne 1-0 for a third loss in as many outings.
China yesterday celebrated one of its best Olympic performances, while some supporters declared China the true winners, if medals won by Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan were included. “We are number one out of sovereign countries,” read one comment with more than 1,300 likes on Sina Weibo. Many similar posts included images of an adjusted medal table with medals won by Hong Kong and Taiwan added to the Chinese total. Since Taiwan’s Olympic debut in 1956, its athletes have competed as “Formosa,” “Taiwan,” “the Republic of China,” and since 1984 as “Chinese Taipei.” Hong Kong competes separately from China. Team China racked up 40 gold
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out