Paris Saint-Germain defeated league leading Lyon in an enthralling contest, by way of a Ludovic Giuly header in the 25th minute. The Parisians victory in week 15 means they have beaten the three Champions League clubs in Ligue 1; Marseille, Bordeaux, and now Lyon.
Giuly, Makelele, and Stéphane Sessegnon again stepped up their performances against one of Le Championnat's “giants” to outclass the champions of France. PSG coach Paul Le Guen said: “It's good, but we can't stop here. We have to be even more vigilant, more focused, to not fall off the wagon, to not get carried away mentally, with the success.”
Le Guen's biggest test will be to get PSG beating the teams lower down the table, which they have been unable to do regularly thus far, having gone down to defeats by lowly St. Etienne, Grenoble, Monaco, and Toulouse so far this term.
This weekend though, Paris were fantastic. PSG kept Lyon at bay for the entire game at Parc des Princes.
Frustration got the better of the champions; Juninho, who was brought on for the unusually lacklustre Karim Benzema, was sent off in the 59th minute of the game for a maddeningly cantankerous swipe at a PSG defender.
Juninho's frustrations at his own aged performances this season have never been far from the surface, his usual starting role on the OL bench doesn't sit too well with the club's captain. When on the pitch in the capital, the 33-year-old looked a shadow of his former self and was unable to impact upon the game in any way other than his petulance.
Lyon have no such trouble in the Champions League, they sit on the cusp of qualification to the knockout stages. One of France's other big guns, Marseille, look like they will be eliminated from Europe's top competition at the first hurdle. They face a must win game against Liverpool in mid-week, a loss would leave Les Phoceéns 8pts behind the leaders in Group D.
Marseille were saved by Zenden's 92nd minute free kick in their 2-2 draw with Lille at the Velodrome on Sunday night. A comedy of errors saw OM fall behind 2-0 in the first half.
OM's rabid and unforgiving fans were none too impressed with last week's 3-2 home loss. Gerets' team needed to start this week's game well—they didn't and the Velodrome faithful turned on their team.
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