Midweek league cup action ahoy! This round, the seiziemes are actually the dixiemes, to accommodate most of the Ligue 1 teams joining in and ensure the numbers are right when the European teams (and Lyon) get involved in the next round. All six of the Ligue 2 teams who have progressed are playing away from home, as are Montpellier, sort of, as they relocate to the Altrad Stadium while Mosson recovers from the recent flooding.
Second Round Round-Up
Auxerre beat Nancy 3-0 with a hat-trick from Julian Viale, despite playing most of the second half with ten men after Ruben Aguilar was sent off. More red cards in Creteil v GFCO Ajaccio, one for Ibrahima Seck, who opened the scoring for the home side, and a late one for Florian Fabre. Julian Francois equalised for Gazelec in first half injury time, but Frederic Piquionne won it on 80 minutes.
Clermont won 3-1 away against Chateauroux, who opened the scoring through Gregory Thil; Souleymane Sawadogo equalised, Fabien Boyer got sent off for the home side, and Clermont took the tie with late goals from Harry Novillo and Idrissa Saadi. Angers went ahead against Arles-Avignon with a goal from Yohan Eudelin, but the visitors hit back with a brace from Ziri Hammar to win 2-1. Mamadou Diallo scored the only goal as Laval beat Dijon 1-0.
A chaotic five-goal thriller in Troyes v AC Ajaccio saw all the goals coming in one fifteen-minute second-half spell. There were strikes from Mouaad Madri, Nicolas Fauvergue, and a brace for Dennis Oliech as the visitors stormed to a 4-0 lead before Karim Azamoum got one back for the home side. We’d recommend watching the video but the LFP have let us down badly on that one.
Third Round / Seiziemes / Dixiemes / Whatever
The potential for cupsets looks limited, as none of the Ligue 2 teams are doing particularly well in the league, and two (Clermont and Arles-Avignon) are currently loitering in the relegation zone. Creteil have scored 17 in the league and 4 in the cup, so might give the Lens defence some problems, and Auxerre will fancy their chances against a Bastia side that is struggling to click.
Of the four all-Ligue-1 clashes, the Garonne derby between Toulouse and Bordeaux will see two teams trying to recover from defeats at the weekend. Toulouse manager Alain Casanova has promised that his team will bounce back from the 2-0 home defeat to Lens, and that Zacharie Boucher will be replaced by Marc Vidal in goal; given that le Tefece had 73% possession and 16 shots against Lens but failed to score, he might want to move the attack around a bit as well. Willy Sagnol says that he will play the strongest possible team as «This competition is one of our objectives, it is the shortest route into Europe».
Nice beat Metz 1-0 in game 5 in the league with a 95th minute backpass-assisted goal from Alexy Bosetti, and they will presumably be in great spirits after the 7-2 drubbing of Guingamp at the weekend. Metz might be hoping that all their opponents’ goalscorers are tired. Evian v Lorient is perhaps unkindly lumped in to the multiplex on Tuesday; they both lost at the weekend, to Nantes and Caen respectively, and given their league positions, may have their sights set on the next game. As for Lorient that involves welcoming PSG to the Stade du Moustoir, however, they could already have written that off, whereas Evian will be hoping to cause their usual brand of chaos away at Montpellier.
The big match is Rennes v Marseille, OM winning 3-0 when the two teams met at the Velodrome in game 6, which saw a brace for Andre-Pierre Gignac and a last-minute adding-insult-to-injury-time third from Romain Alessandrini. Of that, Philippe Montanier says «Apart from our effectiveness, there were lots of positives to take. Despite the result not being in our favour, it was one of the matches where we showed most consistency. We felt good. Even though we conceded three goals, we didn’t allow many chances.» With Marseille’s winning streak halted by Lyon on Sunday (sitting this round out as they qualified to qualify for Europe) and Rennes having beaten Lille 2-0 at the weekend, the schedulers look to have called this one correctly as the match of the round.
Tuesday 19.00 GMT :
Evian (19) v Lorient (17)
Reims (14) v Arles-Avignon (19)
Montpellier (13) v AC Ajaccio (12)
Caen (15) v Clermont (18)
Nantes (5) v Laval (10)
Lens (16) v Creteil (15)
SC Bastia (18) v Auxerre (9)
Tuesday 20.00 (France 4) – Toulouse (12) v Bordeaux (6)
Wednesday 17.30 (France 4) – Nice (7) v Metz (10)
Wednesday 19.55 (France 3) – Rennes (9) v Marseille (1)
Stay tuned to @FranceFtWeekly for coverage – for the untelevised multiplex on Tuesday, the best source for information will be Foot National where you can also check out all the scores in last weekend’s round of Coupe de France fixtures.