The View From France

Jean-Pierre Thiesset rounds up all the action from the fifteenth week of action in D1 Arkema, French women’s football’s top flight.

Paris St. Germain won 4-0 at home against Issy. PSG are still league leaders, one point ahead of Lyon. Goals from Luana (12), Kadidiatou Diani (85, 87), and Marie-Antoinette Katoto (89). Issy was able to keep up the suspense during most of the game even if PSG dominated the game, but PSG scored three goals in four minutes at the end.

Olympique Lyonnais won away from home 2-0 against Soyaux. Goals for Lyon from Saki Kumagai (27) and Dzsenifer Marozsan (87 penalty); the penalty was won by Sakina Karchaoui who came on as a substitute in the 58^th minute. Once again it was not really an easy game for Lyon, who dominated, but found it hard to score despite creating numerous chances. Soyaux came very close to scoring after 64 minutes on a counterattack.

Bordeaux won at home against Dijon 6-0. Bordeaux largely dominated the game and shut down Dijon by scoring quickly 2 goals (6 and 7). Goal from Maëlle Garbino (6, 7 and 25), Khadija Shaw (62 and 72), and Claire Lavogez (80). With this win, Bordeaux secures its third place being now eight points ahead of Montpellier and with a game in hand.

Montpellier at home against Dijon was not able to do better than a draw 1-1. Goals for Dijon by Shnia Demetrice Gordan (45) and for Montpellier by 18 year-old Matilda’s starlet Mary Fowler (66). By losing two points at home Montpellier allows Bordeaux to be now 8 points ahead of them. I guess that the third place is definitely lost for Montpellier even if there are still seven games to play.

The surprise of this round comes from Reims who won away from home against Fleury (2-1) ending a run of three straight defeats. Goals for Fleury by Cecilie Sandvej (24) and for Reims by Melissa Gomes (44) and Kessya Busy (58).

Paris FC and Guingamp were not able to score and finished 0-0. The D1 ARKEMA table now looks like this: