At the bottom of the table, Montpellier gave themselves some air against Brest (3-0) for the first of the ghost Michel Der Zakarian on the bench.

Behind, the red lantern Angers and the penultimate Auxerre were neutralized 1-1 during this 23rd day.

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Dark Reindeer in the Pink City

The World Cup-related truce seems to have cut the momentum of Stade Rennes, in the fight for the podium before that, on a slippery slope since.

Steve Mandanda's partners have just lost the fifth of their last eight matches.

"If I weren't worried, I would be unconscious. We must now show that we are a real group. We must be able to question ourselves and raise our heads," projected coach Bruno Genesio.

His players lost their footing in the first period, weighed down by "rookie errors" on the first two goals conceded in an interval of 90 seconds (27th and 28th).

After 37 minutes, the score was 3-0 for Toulouse.

The promoted Garonne, for his part, sees life in pink.

The Téfécé, although deprived of its master to play Branco Van den Boomen, injured, took sixteen points out of 21 since the beginning of the year, enough to become embedded in the middle of the table (11th).

Lille took advantage of the windfall and took fifth place, European at the end of the season, thanks to a double from Jonathan David in the first half hour.

Canadian striker Jonathan David, author of a miss against Strasbourg, February 12, 2023 at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium © Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP

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Surplace of the relegated

Beaten at Pierre-Mauroy, Strasbourg remains in a relegation position in seventeenth place.

But the Alsatians took advantage of the setbacks of their direct competitors.

Troyes, sixteenth with one more point, broke his teeth on Reims (3-0) and his insatiable scorer, Folarin Balogun, the best artificer in the championship with a fifteenth goal on Sunday.

Behind, the red lantern Angers failed to dominate the penultimate Auxerre (1-1).

The SCO did well, moreover, with a penalty from young Matthis Abline pushed back by the crossbar of Paul Bernardoni in added time.

"I see it as a sign of fate because if we had taken that penalty, I think it was over (for maintenance), the carrots were cooked," commented Angers coach Abdel Bouhazama.

Auxerre are three points behind Strasbourg which, with eighteen points, remains ahead of Ajaccio (beaten 3-0 on Friday in Nice) thanks to a better goal difference.

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Burst in the Hérault

Among the badly classified, the only good operation is to be credited to Montpellier, winner 3-0 of Brest, a direct competitor for the maintenance.

The MHSC doubles its opponent in the standings and is in fourteenth place, with a small mattress of five points ahead of the red zone.

With this clear success, the Héraultais are starting the new era in the best possible way. Der Zakarian, ex-coach of La Paillade (2017 to 2021) returned to the bench this week to try to straighten out the team.

"The credit goes to the players", greeted "Der Zak", facing the following: "We must continue to fight, continue to display this state of mind. We must not have any relaxation otherwise we will take slaps" .

Montpellier coach Michel Der Zakarian before the match against Brest, February 12, 2023 at La Mosson © Pascal GUYOT / AFP

Montpellier, beaten in the last two days, had not won in front of their home crowd at La Mosson since September.

In the race to maintain, Nantes also achieved a salutary performance by overcoming Lorient (1-0) at La Beaujoire with a goal from Ludovic Blas.

The Canaries have five points more than Montpellier.

The 23rd day of Ligue 1 ends with Lyon-Lens on Sunday (8:45 p.m.).

© 2023 AFP