The French Ligue 1 after 26 rounds: PSG hits the 60-point mark

FRENCH LIGUE 1 – Round 26

Feb 25.
Montpellier 2-4 Rennes

Feb 26.
Strasbourg 0-0 Nice
Paris St. Germain 3-1 Saint-Etienne

Feb 27.
Monaco 1-2 Reims
Angers 1-2 Lens
Brest 0-1 Lorient
Clermont 1-1 Bordeaux
Metz 0-0 Nantes
Troyes 1-1 Marseille
Lyon 0-1 Lille

Paris St. Germain hit the 60 -point mark and had their lead in the French Ligue 1 title race grow to 15 points.

LEAGUE STANDINGS
1| Paris St. Germain – 62 points
2| Marseille – 47 points
3| Nice – 46 points
4| Rennes – 43 points
5| Strasbourg – 43 points
6| Lens – 40 points
7| Nantes – 39 points
8| Lille – 39 points
9| Monaco – 38 points
10| Lyon – 38 points
11| Montpellier – 37 points
12| Brest – 32 points
13| Reims – 31 points
14| Angers – 29 points
15| Clermont – 28 points
16| Lorient – 24 points
17| Troyes – 22 points
18| Metz – 22 points
19| Saint-Etienne – 22 points
20| Bordeaux – 22 points

AT THE START OF THE ROUND, TROYES, LORIENT, METZ, AND BORDEAUX OCCUPIED THE BOTTOM FOUR POSITIONS IN THE LEAGUE STANDINGS ON 21 POINTS EACH. ALL FOUR AVOIDED DEFEAT THIS ROUND.

Lorient took the maximum points from Brest through a goal from Ibrahima Kone in the 73rd minute. Brest had to play ¾ of the match with a man down after defender Brendan Chardonnet picked up a straight red.

Troyes, Metz, and Bordeaux picked up a point each from their respective matches.

A goal in the 90th minute allowed Troyes to take a point at home in a 1-1 draw with a Marseille side that was looking for points from a win to close in on Paris St. Germain in the title race while widening the gap between Nice.

Metz shared the points in a goalless draw with Nantes. This was the best Nantes could do after beating Paris St. Germain.

Bordeaux shared the points with a recently promoted Clermont Foot after a 1-1 draw.

Back-to-back win for Rennes after a 4-2 win at Montpellier.
A second-half penalty allowed Rennes to regain the lead after blowing away two goals in the first half.

STRASBOURG 0-0 NICE: Even though they ended the game with 9 men, Nice kept the three-point gap through a goalless draw with Strasbourg. Dante saw red in the 48th minute for yellow card accumulation, and Justin Kluivert saw a straight red in the 85th minute.

PARIS ST. GERMAIN 3- 1 SAINT-ETIENNE
Saint-Etienne’s unbeaten run of 4 games [3 wins} came to an end against a Paris St. Germain side that was chasing a victory to get back on track after suffering defeat at Nantes in the last round. Through goals from Kylian Mbappe and assists from Lionel Messi, Paris St. Germain came from a goal down to get the expected victory against Saint-Etienne.

MONACO 1-2 REIMS
Instead of ending a streak of two draws with a win, Monaco conceded two goals at the tail of the match to suffer a 2-1 defeat at home to Reims.