French Lique 1

French Lique 1

Pretty keen for this. My first season fully following the league and Auxerre. First game up is against Lorient tomorrow morning.

Also, you have to admire the journey of Arles-Avignon. From the CFA2 to the Lique 1 in 5 years. Which is the same jump as from the top conference league to the Premier League in 5 years. A pretty darned good effort. Expected to go down again this year. Which would be a shame.

Anyway, Allez Auxerre!!

2-2 draw first up for Auxerre against Lorient.

http://todayfoot.com/Football/?p=16170

A bit unlucky with that last goal.

1-1 draw today against Stade Brestois. Benoit Pedretti is class.

Olympique Marseille having a shocking start to the season.

And Auxerre v Zenit is live on ESPN Wednesday morning! Yesss!!

What bird is that? :)

It's a skylark:

Alouette, gentille alouette
Alouette, je te plumerai

1-0 loss in Champions League playoff with Zenit this morning pour Auxerre, home leg to come though. Could be worse, if you were Tottenham say.

Well another draw for Auxerre. 1-1 this time at home against Valenciennes.

Pretty average start to the season, though it's not much better for usual big teams Bordeaux and Marseille. Toulouse currently on top.

Champions League bitches!! Well done Auxerre!

Also, biggest French transfer of the season. Yoann Gourcuff to Lyon now. Bit disappointed. Was an Arsenal and Manchester City target (who isn't). Means Bordeaux have lost two of their best players, Gourcuff and Chamakh.

AC Milan
Real Madrid
Ajax
Auxerre.

Bugger.

Suffering from Champions League hangover or something. 2-0 loss to Monaco. Still winless. Bordeaux drew with Marseille in the big game of the weekend.

Auxerre still after our first win, 1-0 loss away to Lille. Giving us an 0-4-2 record alongside the loss to Milan.

And yet another draw for Auxerre. 2-2 with Nancy.

Lyon are having similar troubles though, 2nd bottom.

St Ettiene lead on 16 points.

... Don't want to be playing catch up.

Auxerre welcoming Real Madrid to town tomorrow. Wish I was still there.

A 1-0 loss to Real Madrid is not too bad. We just need to target Ajax in the next two rounds.

Watching Auxerre live for the first time. Up 2-0 at home to Arles. This was a game I was banking on for a first win. Goals to Pedretti and Traore so far. Almost halftime.

Some slick buildup play for Pedretti's goal and then a nice finish.simon_hampton2010-10-03 06:47:15

Ooh, wordwork header after some superb buildup play.

Contout with the third goal for AJ, brilliant glancing header from some distance. Arles just aren't very good. It's a fairytale story for them last few years but really can't see them going anywhere but back into Lique 2.

Contout is class. Runs past about three defenders then has a shot from outside the area parried away.

Freekick in a very good position for Auxerre.

Dudka puts it well over.

4-0! Birsa with a shot into left hand corner from outside the box. Keeper could've done something there, it looked like he started diving when the ball was past him..

Arles player put in a stretcher all bandanged up after running into the post defending a cross. Looked very nasty.

This is exactly the result needed to kick our campaign into gear. Hpoefully more wins from here!

2 mins added on. Come on 5th goal!

Should have been a 5th as well. Terrible clearance but can't put it away.

FT 0-4 Auxerre win!

Most other games still in progress but of the big teams,

Bordeaux lead Lorient 1-0
Monaco trail Brest 1-0
Lyon are level with Nancy 2-2

And the big game at 8am, top of the table St Ettiene take on Marseille.

French league is even more mixed up than normal this season. Makes things pretty interesting.

Supporter of Girondins de Bordeaux for some time now. Tigana has his work cut out with the club in a serious rebuilding phase.

Well Auxerre lost 1-0 to Bordeaux this morning. Bordeaux are good, but still a bit disappointed at lying in the drop zone.

Bordeaux slump 0-2 to Brest at home (often think of doing this myself but my wife has other ideas! ) Diarra banned for at least 3 matches. A long, difficult season ahead.   

Well, Stade Brestois are on top at the moment. But it's all pretty tight really. Apart from Arles-Avignon down the bottomonly 8 points are the difference between 1st and 19th. Auxerre are slowly improving, 3-6-3 record at the moment in the 13th place but 5 points off top 4. Lyon struggling in 11th and Marseille and Bordeaux in 6th.

Auxerre 2 Rennes 1! Move up to 8th. Big Champions League game next week against Milan. Hoping we snatch something and pinch third place off Ajax.

Gotta beat Madrid at the Bernabeu to go through to Europa League. Or else draw and hope Ajax getting nothing from their clash with Milan. Can only hope...

Bringing this back from the dead mainly because Monaco got relegated from Ligue 1 this morning after a 34-year stay in the French top flight.

Sad day for a club which had some very successful seasons in the 1990s and 2000s.