Bordeaux 0-0 Olympique Marseille

Someone pointed out after this game that the difference between a 1-1 draw in France compared with England is that such a game in France is much more entertaining. I wouldn't say I agree with this as it is based on the teams and we should remember that a 1-1 scoreline is probably less likely in England.

Nevertheless this was indeed an entertaining game although I thought it was going to peter out towards the end of the 90. Both teams came out brightly and the first chance fell to OM as a player was put through and then went down claiming a penalty. The referee was having none of it and only a few minutes later up the other end, Mandanda in the OM goal dropped a headed attempt on goal but there was no Bordeaux player following up. OM then went forward with a swift counter attack that was enough to give the Marseille team an early lead. It was a wonderfully created goal with Brandao doing much of the work down the right as Lucho ran the length of the pitch to put the deflected cross into the Bordeaux goal from only a few yards out.

It was in fact OM who continued to dominate after this point and pushed for a second. Only after the half hour mark did Bordeaux look to get back in the game when a free kick potentially struck Cisse on the arm. The referee once again shook his head but only five minutes later sent off the same player as the holding midfielder made a challenge from behind. The commentator of the game argued that this was justified but for me and many others the tackle warranted, at most, a yellow card.

At half-time OM looked good value for their lead and were unlucky not to be up by more. Bordeaux meanwhile had only sporadic chances and were clearly struggling to enforce the man advantage.

In the second half the game continued to be entertaining as Mandanda and Carrasso in particular had to make fantastic saves; each vying to be the French second goalkeeper behind Hugo Lloris of Lyon. However after about 65 minutes the game began to peter out and OM defended in numbers whilst Bordeaux failed to break them down and were forced to shoot from long range. Marseille fans must have though there team was home and dry but in the 88th minute Modeste beat his marker for a cross and powered the ball past Mandanda for the equaliser. Some of these same fans will feel hard done by but if they had been offered a draw at Bordeaux playing most of the game with 10 men; I feel most would have taken this result.

PSG 1-2 Bordeaux

When I covered a PSG game exactly one week ago I launched into a polemic of how awful the game was. This evening I watched another PSG game and was delighted by how it enthralled me and was a genuinely enjoyable experience. In the end the better team lost from two corners and will prove to be an invaluable lesson to PSG on the importance of defending set-pieces.

This is the second time that I have now watched PSG for this blog and they interest me greatly. Again, like last week, they were an impressive defensive unit at the back when they were called into action. In front of them were Makelele and Bodmer who are hard to describe as a central midfield pairing as they sit so deep. This role, on many occasions was taken up by the two wingers who often came in to fill the gap. This in turn allowed Cesara and Jallet to come forward from the wing-back positions. Up front, Erding plays so far in front of Horau it is hard to place the latter. I would put him down as a trequartista but am interested to hear others opinions. Bordeaux meanwhile played a very tight shape with Wendel and Plasil rarely venturing out to the wings as might have been expected.

In the past five meetings between these two teams, PSG had won three and Bordeaux two with no draws so the form showed that this was going to be a tightly contested match with goals. In the opening part of the game it was PSG who really dominated and constantly looked a threat to the Bordeaux defence. Their first clear cut chance was on ten minutes when a PSG attacker was presented with a one-on-one situation but Carrasso saved brilliantly. PSG continued to push and Sessegnon came close to put his team one up when he stretched for the ball from a free kick. His effort was wide though. The final chance of the half, and for PSG to take what would have been a deserving lead, fell to Erding who powered a header towards goal. The effort was once again saved by Carrasso though and the teams went in level at half-time.

PSG continued to press with the same force as the first half as soon as we entered the second half as a cross flew across goal only a few minutes in. Bordeaux's first real chance then fell in the 50th minute as a long range strike from Wendel flew over the bar. The game then started to open up a bit more and after Erding had yet another one-on-one saved, Josue up the other end managed to bustle his way through the home sides tight defence and went down. The referee judged that the player dived and the Brazilian got a yellow card for his troubles.

The first goal came 10 minutes later and against the run of play. Bordeaux won a corner, Diarra lost his man and the captain headed his team in front past a despairing Coupet. PSG could only respond with what they were doing all along and attacking the Bordeaux goal. They were eventually rewarded 76 minutes into the game as Horau was played in and slotted home. There followed a passage of play where Bordeaux could have scored twice more with good chances and Horau had a chance for a second up the other end. All these were squandered and the game looked to be heading towards a draw. That is until Ciani popped up with a header from another corner which somehow squeezed past the diving Coupet and the post to go in. An undeserved victory no doubt and PSG will be kicking themselves wondering how they managed to lose. This though will become abundantly clear this next week as manager Kombouare makes the team practice defending corners until they can do it in their sleep.

Man of the Match: Cedric Carrasso
The former OM and Toulousse goalkeeper kept his team in the game so many times with vital saves. In the end he had made six stops from the PSG attack and is the man Bordeaux fans will be singing the praises of all week.

Lille 0-0 PSG

Watching paint dry would have been a great laugh compared to this goalless draw. No, in order to replicate the experience I had whilst enduring this encounter in Ligue 1, I think I would have had to projectile vomit onto walls for 90 minutes and watch this dry instead.

When I chose to watch this match I thought that the current holders of the Coupe de France travelling to Lille to play against the team which finished 4th last season would be a fantastic game. Instead the match was one of those where neither team wanted to lose and I started to get the impression neither team wanted to be there (like me in the end).

The start of the match was not helped by the referee who seemed to blow his whistle as often as he exhaled. This stop-start pattern continued for around the first 20 minutes, saw two yellow cards and allowed neither team to get into their natural rhythm.

As the teams eventually settled into their formations we got something interesting to look at. Lille played with a 4-4-2 diamond which was extremely narrow. This though allowed Benia and Debuchy to really push forward and these two players were often seen throughout the game putting crosses into the PSG box from within the attacking third. This, in some games could have left them vulnerable defensively but Erdinç played very high and there wasn't a great connection between him and Hoarau. Furthermore, Mavuba would often come back to defend as part of a make-shift back three and Cabaye is widely regarded as a 'box-to-box' midfielder.

Meanwhile PSG proved time and time again that their defensive back four could have held out Attila the Hun never mind the Lille attack. In front of them PSG generally appeared to play as a 4-2-3-1 but Nenê and Sessègnon would often drop back to make more of a standard 4-4-2 with Hoarau playing off Erdinç.

PSG had the first real chance of the game after 31 years minutes when Erdinç went close with a header, Nenê then had a powerful shot from the edge of the area ten minutes later but this was a relatively comfortable save in the end for Landreau. Although PSG had the only noteworthy chances, Lille were far and away the better team in the first half. They dominated possession (almost 2 to 1) as PSG refused to press and Lille were allowed to play the ball around before coming forward. Before they even got into a relatively dangerous position though, they were closed down and depossessed.

In the second half I prayed for something to happen that would spark the game off. I thought this was what happened in the 56th minute when a free kick from the Brazilian Nenê was swung into the near post and pushed away by Landreau for a corner. Nenê again swung in the corner and it nearly went in as the Lille keeper was forced into another save, this time punching the corner from off his goal line. This wasn't enough though to set the game alight and an attempted Lille counter-attack was soon broken down.

Lille eventually started to look threatening in the 64th minute when Melo struck wide from a corner. A few minutes later and Debuchy put a dangerous cross into the middle that was headed away by Jallet for another corner. Debuchy met this corner with his head and the ball bounced dangerously across the face of goal before the ball was cleared by PSG.

My patience, matched only by saints, in enduring this match was not helped by the referee who kept on whistling more than an entrant to 'One Man and his Dog'. In particular a soft yellow card given to Makélélé was nearly the final straw for me. I needn't have bothered holding on though, the only chance that reared its head after this point was another Nenê free kick in the 92nd minute that went a couple of feet wide. Overall I guess he was the man of the match though it pains me to award one.

Olympique Marseille 1-2 Caen

Who said French football was boring?! This evenings opening round of French Ligue 1 games proved this wrong with the highlight being Caen's victory over Olympique Marseille (OM).

Anyone with any knowledge of the French game would surely have made OM favourites on the grounds that they won the championship last year whilst Caen were fighting at the top of Ligue 2 for promotion to the top league. On top of this the Marseille club are the most valuable France has ever known.

Perhaps those with a little more nous about French football would not have written Caen off right away. The club topped Ligue 2 last season and have been busy in the transfer market. In fact two of the players bought in the summer featured tonight (Kandia Traore and Damien Marcq).

The game started off strongly with both sides looking to get the other hand early on. However, after a rough challenge by Tafforeau on 10 minutes which earned the Frenchman a yellow card, the game began to settle into a rhythm.

As the game progressed it soon became obvious that Caen were no pushovers and began to build some nice attacks (most notably through Mollo on the left) which made the OM defence look vulnerable. At the other end, Marseille lacked the same penetration as the Caen back line held strong. During the first half it was Caen who looked most likely to break the deadlock, particularly when, on 38 minutes, Mandanda was put under pressure as a shot flew past his right-hand post. Nevertheless the two teams went in at the break goalless and this was probably a fair scoreline.

Some might have expected OM to come back into the match during the second period and take control but the newly promoted side kept up the pressure, particularly through the middle of the field and this is where the first goal came from. As the diagram shows, Seube was an important defensive player when OM were on the attack but as soon as Caen had the ball, the 30-year old looked to move forward through the midfield. On 53 minutes he did exactly this and then drove a shot home from 30 yards.

Caen looked good value for their lead even after OM manager Didier Deschamps made the attacking double substitution which saw Ben Arfa and Samassa take to the pitch. Marseille kept pushing though and the equaliser came when the pair combined and a lovely ball from Ben Arfa bounced nicely for Samassa and the striker from Mali bundled the ball home.

With 10 minutes to go, most newly promoted teams would have tried to hold on for the draw against the current champions but not Caen who brought on Nabab as a fresh pair of legs and kept the same formation. It was in the end an attack down the right that led to the goal and as a tackle came in near the by-line, other subsitute, Yatabaré looped the ball across the face of the goal perfectly for El-Arabi to power a header in. Mandanda could do nothing about it but questions will be asked as to where exactly the marking was.

So a bit of luck with the goal which eventually won the game for Caen but for me this was nothing short of what the team from North-West France deserved. Meanwhile, if OM and Deschamps are going to retain the championship they will have to do much better than this.

Man of the Match: Nicolas Seube
It couldn't realistically be anyone else after the man who has played for Caen his entire career made run after run which aided both the midfield and attack. His natural position at the base of midfield made Seube the anchor of the team and provided a perfect launchpad for attacks. It only seemed fitting that he should get the opening goal and all the better that it was such a spectacular one!