France's Ligue 1 is in full effect and its hottest team is Olympique Lyonnais. Brazilian playmaker Michel Bastos scored the game winner in Lyon's 1-0 home win against Lorient. Claude Puel's team have won 4 straight matches to move into 2nd place behind Bordeaux on goal differential. Lyon have been doing it with defense allowing only 1 goal during their winning streak.

Ligue 1's next hottest team is the surprise side of the league, Montpellier. Argentine midfielder Alberto Costa scored his team leading 3rd goal by converting a PK in the 39th minute to give Montpellier a 1-0 home win. La Paillade have won 3 straight shutting out their opponents in each of their victories as they have ascended into 3rd place.

Monaco ended PSG's 3 game winning streak with a 2-0 home win over the Parisians. The game was headed for a 0-0 score until the 85th minute when South Korean forward Park Chu-Young put Monaco in the lead and then 3 minutes later Nenê finished PSG with Monaco's 2nd goal. PSG fell to 5th place while Monaco climbed to 7th place in the standings.

Here are the results and standings from 5ème Journée:

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

Lyon 1 - 0 Lorient
LYO: Michel Bastos (72')

Montpellier 1 - 0 Lens
MON: Alberto Costa (pen 39')

Le Mans 1 - 2 Marseille
LMN: Modibo Maiga (61')
MAR: Mamadou Niang (14') & Brandao (69')

AS Nancy 0 - 0 Toulouse

Valenciennes 1 - 1 Boulogne
VAL: Grégory Pujol (75')
BOU: Daniel Moreira (83')

Lille 1 - 0 Sochaux
LIL: Pierre-Alain Frau (71')

Bordeaux 1 - 0 Grenoble
BOR: Yoan Gouffran (18')

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

AJ Auxerre 2 - 0 Nice
AUX: Cedric Hengbart (30') & Daniel Niculae (78')

Stade Rennes 1 - 0 St Etienne
REN: Sylvain Marveaux (62')

AS Monaco 2 - 0 Paris Saint-Germain
MON: Park Chu-Young (85') & Nenê (88')

STANDINGS

French Ligue 1 Wrap - Round 5

The 4th matchday of France highest level of club football featured a matchup of the top two teams from last season. Last season's runner-up Olympique Marseille hosted champions Girondins Bordeaux. It was a back and forth affair that ended up in a 0-0 draw at Marseille's Stade Velodrome. Both sides remained unbeaten on the season as Bordeaux stayed on top of the standings.

PSG moved into 2nd place with their 3-0 home win against Lille. Jeremy Clement scored his 1st goal of the season as PSG extended their winning streak to 3 games and sent last season's 5th place team down into the relegation zone.

Lyon remained unbeaten on the season as they notched their 3rd straight win with a 3-1 home win against AS Nancy. Lyon's new 3 headed attacking force of Bafetimbi Gomis, Lisandro Lopez, and Michel Bastos each scored to give Lyon its 2nd straight match of 3 goals scored and a 3rd place position in the standings.

The surprise of Ligue 1 so far has been newly promoted Montpellier. Last season's Ligue 2 runners-up are in 4th place after their 3-0 road win against Nice. Geoffrey Dernis, Victor Hugo Montano, Lilian Compan each scored their 1st goals of the season as Montpellier stayed unbeaten and have yet to be shutout this season.

Here are the results & standings from 4eme Journée:

SATURDAY, AUGUST 29

Lens 2 - 2 Stade Rennes
LEN: Yohan Demont (pen 21') & Issam Jemaa (72')
STR: Ismael Bangoura (4') & Asamoah Gyan (90'+2')

Sochaux 1 - 0 AS Monaco
SOC: Vaclav Sverkos (pen 20')

Lorient 1 - 0 Le Mans
LOR: Marama Vahirua (63')

St Etienne 1 - 0 Grenoble
STE: Christophe Landrin (23')

Nice 0 - 3 Montpellier
MON: Geoffrey Dernis (4'), Victor Hugo Montano (49'), Lilian Compan (77')

Boulogne 0 - 0 AJ Auxerre

Lyon 3 - 1 AS Nancy
LYO: Bafetimbi Gomis (37'), Lisandro (49'), Michel Bastos (67')
NAN: Youssouf Hadji (57')

SUNDAY, AUGUST 30
Paris Saint-Germain 3 - 0 Lille
PSG: Jeremy Clement (27'), Pegguy Luyindula (78'), Christophe Jallet (90'+1')

Toulouse 0 - 1 Valenciennes
VAL: Mamadou Samassa (87')

Marseille 0 - 0 Bordeaux

STANDINGS

French Ligue 1 Wrap - Round 4

There is a surprise leader early in the 09-10 French Ligue 1 season. AS Nancy has been on fire offensively in rising to the top of the Ligue 1 standings. This week, AS Nancy defeated Monaco 4-0 in their home opener at Stade Marcel Picot. Cameroonian forward Paul Alo'o Efoulou scored twice to stand out in the win. That's 7 goals scored to only 1 allowed to open the season for Nancy.

No suprise in who is tied for 1st with AS Nancy, its defending champions Bordeaux. Moroccan forward Marouane Chamakh's 2 goals cancelled out 2 goals from Sochaux's American striker Charlie Davies as Gerardo Wendel's goal in the 42nd minute proved to be the difference as Laurent Blanc's men remained perfect this season.

Last year's surprise team, Toulouse bounced back from a disappointing loss to defeat St. Etienne 3-1 in their home opener. Last season's leading goal scorer André-Pierre Gignac scored his 1st of the season to highlight Toulouse's first win of the season.

Here are the results & standings from 2ème Journée:

SATURDAY, AUGUST 15

Paris Saint-Germain 3 - 1 Le Mans
PSG: Mevlüt Erding (34'), Frederic Thomas (og 60'), Ludovic Giuly (83')
LEM: Thorstein Helstad (21')

Lens 2 - 0 AJ Auxerre
LEN: Kevin Monnet Paquet (14') & Abdoulrazak Boukari (59')

Lyon 1 - 0 Valenciennes
LYO: Bafetimbi Gomis (37')

Sochaux 2 - 3 Bordeaux
SOC: Charlie Desmond Davies (59' & 90')
BOR: Marouane Chamakh (31 & 80') & Geraldo Wendel (42')

Lorient 2 - 2 Montpellier
LOR: Kevin Gameiro (69') & Laurent Koscielny (90'+ 3')
MTP: Alberto Costa (60') & Emir Spahic (67')

AS Nancy Lorraine 4 - 0 AS Monaco
NAN: Issiar Dia (31'), Andre Luiz (pen 42'), Alo'o Efoulou (49' & 80')

Toulouse 3 - 1 St. Etienne
TFC: Paulo Machado (10'), André-Pierre Gignac (66'), Moussa Sissoko (80')
STE: Emmanuel Riviere (25')

SUNDAY, AUGUST 16

Boulogne 2 - 1 Grenoble
BOU: Gregory Thil (34' & 38')
GRE: Danijel Ljuboja (46')

Nice 1 - 1 Stade Rennes
NIC: Chaouki Ben Saada (44')
STR: Asamoah (pen 45')

Marseille 1 - 0 Lille
MAR: Brandao (11')

STANDINGS

French Ligue 1 Wrap - Round 2

Ladies & gentlemen in an attempt to expand Mad About Futbol's reach we are going to start giving you roundups of the France's Ligue 1. France's top league of football is one of the most important in the world and deserves more attention than it currently receives. Therefore, MAF will give you a weekly roundup of Ligue 1 including the scores & standings from the most recent round.

The defending champions, Bordeaux got off to an impressive start with their smashing 4-1 home win over 08-09 Ligue 2 champions Lens. Yohan Gourcuff scored twice to lead the France's best club side the 3 points as they gave Lens a harsh introduction into 1st division football.

Last year's runners-up Marseille started the their campaign strong as well with a 2-0 road win over Grenoble. Senegalese forward and Marseille captain Mamadou Niang opened the scoring for l'OM in the 2nd minute and Benoît Cheyrou scored late in the 2nd half to give new coach Didier Deschamps an important 3 points to the start of the season.

As for Lyon, the former 7-straight titlists, they needed a 2nd half injury time goals from newly acquired Argentine forward Lisandro Lopez to salvage a 1-1 road draw against Le Mans.

Here are the results & standings from 1ère Journée:

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2009

AS Monaco 1 - 0 Toulouse
MON: Anderson Luiz Nené (43')

AJ Auxerre 0 - 1 Sochaux
SOC: Vaclav Sverkos (40')

Montpellier 1 - 1 Paris Saint-Germain
MON: Emir Spahic (90'+4')
PSG: Ludovic Giuly (71')

Stade Rennes 3 - 0 Boulogne
STR: Ismael Bangoura (7'), Abdou Mangane (45'), Jerome Leroy (90'+1')

St. Etienne 0 - 2 Nice
NIC: Mahamane Traore (39') & Loïc Remy (87')

Le Mans 2 - 2 Lyon
LEM: Modibo Maiga (20') & Mathieu Coutadeur (pen 59')
LYO: Mathieu Bodmer (28') & Lisandro López (90')

Grenoble 0 - 2 Marseille
MAR: Mamadou Niang (2') & Benoit Cheyrou (81')

Valenciennes 1 - 3 AS Nancy Lorraine
VAL: Mamadou Samassa (9')
ASN: Julien Féret (17'), Jonathan Brison (60'), Bakaye Traore (pen 71')

SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2009

Lille 1 - 2 Lorient
LLE: Olivier Monterubbio (og 66')
LOR: Kevin Gameiro (33') & Marama Vahirua (52')

Bordeaux 4 - 1 Lens
BOR: Wendel (12'), Yoann Gourcuff (54', 90'+3'), Marouane Chamakh (90'+2')
LEN: Issam Jemaa (40')

STANDINGS

French Ligue 1 Wrap - Round 1