Jean-Pierre Thiesset summarises the fourth round of 2023-2024 D1 Arkema season plus an exclusive photo gallery of Ellie Carpenter.
Above: Ellie Carpenter, Blue band head, and Lyon took back the lead of D1 Arkema. Photo: Jean-Pierre Thiesset for Impetus.
Bordeaux 1-1 Montpellier
On a pitch not great for playing football, Montpellier put a lot of pressure on Bordeaux from the start of the match. Marie Levasseur, a transfer from Fleury to Montpellier this season, returned to her preferred position at right back.
She had a great first half especially on 39 minutes with a perfect defensive tackle prevented Mylaine Tarrieu to score.
Above: Marie Levasseur, Montpellier, orange & white shirt (3). Photo: Bordeaux website.
Montpellier came close to opening the scoring but hit the post from a Nérilia Mondésir shot on 42 minutes
23-year-old French international Maëlle Lakrar made her return at half time in the centre of defence after several weeks out.
Following a handball from Charlotte Bilbault, Andréa Lardez converted the 50th minute penalty to open the scoring for Bordeaux.
Montpellier levelled the scores with a header of Léa Khelifi converting a cross from Mondésir on the hour.
Scorers for Bordeaux: Lardez 52’
Scorers for Montpellier: Khelifi 60’
Paris FC 2-0 Guingamp
Paris FC left several usual starters on the bench to rest after their game versus Wolfsburg this week in UEFA WCL. They slightly dominated the first half but without any goal.
Scorers for Paris FC: Thiney 69’ penalty, Dufour 89’
MATILDAS WATCH – Sarah Hunter (Paris FC)
Sarah Hunter was still not in the group for this game.
Le Havre 2-2 Lille
There were four graduates of the Olympique Lyonnais Academy on the pitch for this game: Inès Benyahia and Eva Kouache for Le Havre and Lorena Azzaro and Jessy Roux for Lille.
Lille dominated much of the match. Azzaro scored the first goal for Lille on seven minutes and on 24 minutes, Maité Boucly delivered her second decisive pass to Nesryne El Chad who scored for Lille with a header.
With a little bit of luck or efficiency, Le Havre could have reduced the score with three opportunities in the five last minutes of first half.
Lille goalkeeper Elisa Launay had an outstanding performance with several saves and especially on 67 minutes with a huge stop from a header from Benyahia and twice on 88 minutes prevented Le Havre from pulling one back.
In spite of those heroics, Le Havre eventually scored twice in stoppage time to earn a draw.
Scorers for Le Havre: Tchaptchet 90’+2,Ali Nadjim 90’+8
Scorers for Lille: Roux 7’ El Chad 24’
Booking: Naomie Bamenga (Lille) yellow 26’, 45′
Paris Saint-Germain – Reims – stopped at beginning of 2nd half
Paris Saint-Germain played without Oriane Jean-François who ruptured her ACL during the UEFA WCL game against Manchester United on Tuesday. PSG enjoyed almost 80% of possession but Reims prevented them scoring by fighting on all balls, playing with nine players in defence and trying to have opportunities with counterattacks.
Reims had the best opportunity of first half and almost scored with a shot on the crossbar in the 40th minute.
Unfortunately, this game was stopped at the beginning of the second half due to a few teenagers who launched hundreds of fireworks onto the pitch from outside the stadium. Allegedy because they had been forbidden to enter in the stadium as they did not have any ID.
The French Football Federation will need to decide what to do this week, as it is the first time ever that such a problem arises in D1 Arkema.
We can expect that FFF will try to make an example and will likely apply strong sanctions against PSG.
MATILDAS WATCH – Clare Hunt (Paris Saint-Germain):
Clare Hunt, played 74 minutes in the UEFA WCL entering to replace Oriane Jean-François who injured at the 17th minute earning a performance score of 3.3 on a scale of 5 by UEFA.
Clare Hunt was not in the group for this game versus Reims. Jocelyn Prêcheur, Paris SG coach, said that she is slightly injured and that he wanted her to rest and be ready for the UEFA WCL return game versus Manchester United on October 18.
Fleury 2-1 Dijon
Fleury players played with a pink shirt for the fight against breast cancer because it is an awareness month in France.Fleury slightly dominated the first quarter and had a few opportunities but was not able to open the scoring. Then, Dijon stepped up and the game became more even.
Dijon scored first at the end of first half, but Fleury scored twice during the last 30 minutes to win this game.
Scorers for Fleury: Grabowska 63’, Kamczyk 70’
Scorers for Dijon: Jankovska 42’.
Olympique Lyonnais 6-0 Saint-Etienne
More than 1,500 fans were at this derby between 2 towns separated only by 40 km. As the scoreline suggests, Lyon were dominant throughout. The match was not without controversy as the referee tended towards leniency in the face of several Saint-Etienne fouls that might usually have been punished.
Above: Eugénie Le Sommer, Lyon, white shirt in centre, celebrating one of her two goals. Photo: Jean-Pierre Thiesset for Impetus.
More positively, Eugénie Le Sommer continues to surprise everybody with her another great performance in the twilight of her career.
Above: Hat-trick hero, Lindsey Horan, Lyon, white shirt number 26, celebrating one of her three goals. Photo: Jean-Pierre Thiesset for Impetus.
Scorers for Lyon: Gilles 15’, Le Sommer 16’, 26’, Horan 23’, 79’, 85’
Bookings: Faustine Bataillard, Saint-Etienne yellow cards 29’ and 90’
MATILDAS WATCH – Ellie Carpenter (Olympique Lyonnais)
Sonia Bompastor, Lyon coach, rested several starters in this game Ellie Carpenter played only in the first half but she gave another excellent performance.
Ellie Carpenter photos’ gallery. Exclusive photos of Jean-Pierre Thiesset from pitch side for Impetus Women’s Football. The Matildas fullback is in white shirt with the number 12.
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