The Ligue 1 table is starting to take shape after the sixth round of fixtures with, unsurprisingly, PSG topping the standings despite their raft of early-seasons injuries.
On Sunday they got the job done versus Lyon, Neymar scoring a beautiful effort with minutes remaining to hand them a 1-0 win, silencing the boos coming from his own fans.
Angers' superb start to the campaign continued as they demolished Saint Etienne 4-1 at the Stade Raymond Kopa, with Casimir Ninga netting a brilliant 11-minute hat-trick to be far and away our best performer of the round.
| FL1 | Sep 22, 2019 | W | |
Angers, who have been faultless at home this season, were toiling 1-0 down against Saint-Etienne at the break. Pierrick Capelle equalised not long after half-time, but the day would belong to Ninga, who scored a lovely header to make it 2-1 in the 78th minute, slotted home a neat finish six minutes later for his second, and completed his hat-trick after a pacy breakaway with a similarly composed strike into the bottom corner.
With Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani still injured, PSG are stuck with the world’s most expensive footballer to provide the match-winning spark. In what promised to be an exciting fixture against Lyon proved to be anything but, with both sides largely cancelling each other out. Neymar emerged to finish off an incisive move involving Marco Verratti and Angel Di Maria by sweeping a touch past the defender and firing a precise finish across goal into the bottom corner from 12 yards.
It may be very early in the season, but the match between Metz and Amiens already had the feel of a relegation clash as both sides had taken just four points out of a possible 15 at the start of the campaign. In what was a tightly-contested affair, Guirassy proved to be the difference-maker as he opened the scoring with a towering header before turning provider to make it 2-0 by flashing a perfect cross into the box for Bakaye Dibassy to score.
In a Brest team who have struggled for goals recently, Court provided some much-needed ammunition for his team-mates as they drew 2-2 away at Bordeaux. For his first assist of the match, the winger peeled to the back post and stretched to latch on to a lofted pass, successfully pulling across along the goal for Samuel Grandsir to slide home. Then, in a display of composure, intelligence, and unselfishness, he ran through on goal before checking his run to set-up Mathias Autret to slot into the corner.
| FL1 | Sep 21, 2019 | D | |
Chavalerin may have featured in the dull 0-0 draw between Stade de Reims and Monaco, but he was always the player who looked most likely to make something, anything happen from deeper areas. He dictated the play from midfield, completing 27 out of 31 passes as well as winning four out of five attempted tackles, five recoveries and interceptions.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Maxime Lopez (8) had a huge 55 passes in the final third in Marseille's 1-1 draw with Montpellier, as well as two shots. Tiemoue Bakayoko (8) and Guillermo Maripan (7.8) of Monaco saw plenty of the ball versus Stade de Reims and controlled possession well enough, but a lack of meaningful passes or crosses sees them miss out.
ROUND TO FORGET
Stephane Ruffier (4.9) of Saint-Etienne conceded four times against Angers from only five shots faced.
