Ligue 1 round 33

Sochaux 0-1 Marseille
Le Mans 2-1 Bordeaux

A couple of midweek games took place last Wednesday and contrasting fortunes for two title contenders. Marseille stretched the lead to five points at the top after Stephane Mbia won it in the last couple of minutes at Sochaux. Bordeaux have just imploded. Nobody loses to Le Mans, especially a side looking to take the title. All of a sudden, the champions are now nine points off the top after this defeat. They led early on through Carlos Henrique, but Anthony Le Tallec equalised ten minutes later and Mathieu Dossevi put Le Mans ahead on the stroke of half-time. And they held on despite losing Fousseyni Cisse's to a late red card.

Rennes v Nancy
Boulogne v Marseille
Valenciennes v Le Mans
Auxerre v Lorient
Grenoble v Sochaux
Nice v Lens
Bordeaux v Lyon
Lille v Monaco
Montpellier v Toulouse
St Etienne v PSG

So to round 33 and one game stands out a mile. Bordeaux v Lyon. Coming shortly after Lyon's triumph over Bordeaux in the Champions League and Bordeaux in stinky rotten form, it all points to a win for Les Gones. Unless one of these sides win, then you may as well hand Marseille the crown as it's impossible to see them losing to Boulogne. Auxerre are the nearest challengers, but again they need to win at home to Lorient in order to keep the race alive. Montpellier look to have shot their bolt, championship-wise, but are still in the frame for Europe and take on Toulouse this week.

Le Mans gave themselves an outside chance of survival by beating Bordeaux, but they're still ten points behind St Etienne. If Les Verts get anything out of their game against PSG, it could condemn Le Mans to the drop no matter what happens at Valenciennes. Grenoble are already down and there are a couple of games with hardly anything riding on them as Nancy go to Rennes and Nice face Lens.