FRENCH LIGUE 1 REVIEW
Ligue 1: PSG back on track, Rennes crushed
Paris St Germain grabbed their first Ligue 1 win in two months when they thrashed their hosts Sochaux 4-1 on Sunday.
The visitors opened the scoring following a controversial 35th-minute penalty after the referee ruled that Peguy Luyindula had been brought down by keeper Teddy Richert. Turkey striker Mevlut Erding, back from a lenghty injury layoff, was denied by Richert but midfielder Jeremy Clement followed up to poke the ball home.
Midfielder Clement Chantome doubled the lead when he flicked the ball past Richert eleven minutes into the second half, with Erding, who joined from Sochaux during the off season, adding a third on 74 minutes. Midfielder Stephane Dalmat pulled one back three minutes from time but Luyindula wrapped it up almost immediately with a fourth.
A goal by Guinea defender Dianbobo Balde inspired Valenciennes to a 3-0 win at Stade Rennes in Ligue 1 on Sunday.
The win put Valenciennes, who have the best attack in the French league with 22 goals, up to sixth in the standings with 19 points from 11 matches. Balde, who spent eight seasons at Celtic before moving to northern France this year, broke the deadlock when he headed home from a free kick shortly before the hour.
Midfielder Fahid Ben Khalfallah made it two 12 minutes from time by beating Nicolas Douchez from close range after a 30-metre run through the Rennes half and striker Gregory Pujol grabbed the third.
Nice pulled further away from the bottom three with a valuable win at home to fellow strugglers Le Mans.
The Mediterranean club seemingly put their bad start behind them with victory over Lyon last weekend - but they had to scrap for the points, despite the 16th-minute dismissal of Le Mans' Camilo Antonio Geder.
The only goal of the game came five minutes before the break from Ismael Gace, but the hosts failed to press home their numerical advantage.
