Marseille overcame a 1-0 deficit to defeat Angers 3-1 at home, moving them to within two points of Lens for second place. After Abdallah Sima’s goal had given the visitors early hope of an upset at the Velodrome, goals from Alexis Sanchez, Dimitri Payet, and Jordan Veretout’s penalty proved the ideal retaliation to last week’s loss to Lens.
Earlier, Clermont defeated Lyon 2-1 after coming back from a goal down. After 22 minutes, Grejohn Kyei equalized from the penalty spot after Alexandre Lacazette had given Lyon the lead.
Kyei of Clermont scored his second goal, which moved his team up to eighth place and left them just three points behind Lyon. Lyon has lost their chances of playing in Europe next season.
Rennes held an emotional tribute to Soldin, who died on Tuesday while reporting for ‘AFP’ on the conflict in Ukraine. Before the Breton club’s home game against Troyes, Rennes conducted a memorial in honor of Soldin because his mother and brother both reside in the western city.
Rennes honors Soldin
Rennes invited around 30 friends and relatives of Soldin, including his sister who resides in the Bosnian city of Mostar, to honor his sacrifice.
As photographs of the dead reporter were displayed on massive screens inside the stadium, the announcer praised Soldin’s bravery and dedication to “informing as many as possible about the realities of a conflict. “The crowd enthusiastically applauded alongside them during this time.
The 32-year-old French national Soldin, who was born in Bosnia, was working as the video coordinator for an AFP team in Ukraine when they came under fire from Grad rockets while alongside Ukrainian military close to Bakhmut.
Before he became a journalist, Soldin was an avid football player as a youth. He and his mother fled war-torn Bosnia on a humanitarian flight to France when Soldin was just a toddler.
Growing up in the western part of Brittany, he joined the Rennes youth squad in his mid-teens between 2006 and 2008, only to give up on a professional future because of knee issues.
Rennes defeated Troyes 4-0, which means that Troyes will be relegated to the second level next season, joining Ajaccio and Angers. Nantes moved into the fourth drop zone after a scoreless draw at Toulouse, as they are now one point behind Auxerre, who lost 1-0 at Brest.
With a 5-0 home victory over Ajaccio on Saturday, Paris Saint-Germain inched closer to capturing a record 11th French league championship. After regaining a six-point lead over Lens in second place, PSG needs four points from their next three games against Auxerre, Strasbourg, and Clermont to win the Ligue 1 championship.
The action over the weekend was also notable for a number of players declining to take part in a campaign against homophobia. As part of the campaign, every team in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 wore shirts with rainbow-colored numbers.The armbands worn by the captains were of a similar hue.
The coach left off Mostafa Mohamed of Nantes and Zakaria Aboukhlal of Toulouse from the roster for the 0-0 tie because they apparently opposed donning the jersey. According to club sources, Senegalese defender Donatien Gomis of Guingamp withdrew from Saturday’s Ligue 2 match against Sochaux for the same reason.
