Paris (AFP)

A first goal and a first leader: after a sad Bordeaux-Nantes on Friday, the Ligue 1 season was indeed launched by Angers, winner in Dijon (1-0) on Saturday before Lille-Rennes (9:00 p.m.), shock of this first day disputed in the shadow of the Covid-19.

We will therefore remember the name of Ismaël Traoré as the first scorer of the "Ligue 1 according to", 167 days after the last goal scored in the French championship.

With a powerful half-volley, the defender and captain from Angevin offered the victory to the SCO on the field of Dijon (22nd), the day after the goalless draw between Bordeaux and Nantes which had relaunched the L1, definitively stopped in mid-March due to coronavirus.

In front of a sparse public, consequence of the limitation of the gauge to 5,000 people for any gathering, Angevins and Dijonnais delivered a little more spectacle than in Bordeaux the day before, a few hours from the most anticipated duel of the first day.

Because due to the postponement of the Marseille match for five suspicions of Covid-19 within the Marseille club, and the reprogramming of those of Paris SG and Lyon, due to the Champions League, it is the opposition between Lille and Rennes which serves as the first major poster for this 2020-21 season.

- The Covid-19 threat -

The opportunity to see two candidates for Europe at work, as well as the probable debut in Ligue 1 of the young Canadian striker Jonathan David, the most expensive recruit in the history of Losc (27 million euros).

The opportunity also to get used to the new health precautions of the League, which greatly changes the organization of meetings, between disinfected balls and pre-match protocols reduced to a minimum.

In the locker rooms, in the stands as on the lawn in fact, "we take our bearings and we try to find the automatisms", as the first scorer of the season Ismaël Traoré pointed out on the new Téléfoot channel, also in full swing adaptation phase.

The adaptation is also strewn with pitfalls, with a pandemic that continues to threaten the championship. Half of the elite clubs have deplored this week at least one case in their workforce, but only Marseille-Saint-Etienne, supposed to open the season, has for the moment been postponed.

Nîmes-Brest, scheduled for Sunday at 3:00 p.m., must also take place, despite four cases discovered this week among the Crocodiles: they did not deplore “no new positive cases” on Saturday after receiving additional tests.

© 2020 AFP