AJ Auxerre

 1-1 FC Lorient

Laurent Fournier (Auxerre coach): "I cannot reproach my players for anything, nobody can. They were professional, responsible, and played for one another. That is what I asked from them beforehand, and that is what they did. We need to hang in there, maintain the same spirit, keep our heads up, and take our chances. We have ended a negative run, although of course we might have taken more from the game. We created lots of chances, but just didn't take them. Sometimes, quality is not the only thing that wins you matches. I think the performance was spot on, except for the last minute."

Christian Gourcuff (Lorient coach): "There was a bit of everything from us out there today. We started badly. We controlled possession, but struggled to create chances. The pitch made it difficult to pass the ball. And then at ten against 11, we did brilliantly to come back and equalise. That said, with their extra man, Auxerre had chances to go 2-0 up. But we deserve credit for believing right to the end. This point doesn't change much in terms of the table, but it does do us a lot of good in terms of morale."

Teamsheet

Montpellier Hérault SC

 1-0 AC Ajaccio

René Girard (Montpellier coach): "The interesting thing for me was the performance. We scored three goals and kept a clean sheet. We were able to relax a bit at the end of the game although there were one or two things out there today that I didn't like. But we were able to give some guys a breather. Everyone is ready and available. We can go to Paris with the pressure off. We know that they are the favourites and that they will be champions, but we will try to be up to the task. That is six points we have taken from two home games, and in between we have won in the Coupe de France. It is a good run."

Olivier Pantaloni (Ajaccio coach): "I am not too down about this defeat, because there were elements of the performance that pleased me against a team who are up at the top of the table and who had to beat us before playing Paris. We wanted a draw to extend our unbeaten run but the penalty conceded early in the second half really complicated things for us."

Teamsheet

Valenciennes FC

 1-0 AS Nancy Lorraine

Daniel Sanchez (Valenciennes coach): "We could consider this last week to have been perfect, with three wins in three matches. But they were all difficult games. Today we dug in and the result will do us a lot of good. We didn't play enough football or apply enough rhythm in the first half. We were a bit slow at times. But we deserved our win. We created the best chances. We took risks and we saw that Nancy are a dangerous side. We have opened up a little gap on the sides below us. That is important as it boosts confidence and makes our work on a daily basis a bit easier."

Jean Fernandez (Nancy coach): "I think it's cruel to lose like that, in stoppage time, following a poor clearance by our defence. We weren't brilliant today but we were solid at the back and aggressive too. We didn't give them too many chances, although they had a few more in the second period. It is a cruel scenario. There are regrets in that we knew it would be tough to get a goal but we could have done more going forward. Defensively, there is not much I can say to the players. We were compact, disciplined. It is a difficult scenario, we leave here very frustrated. The two teams are fighting for survival, so it would have been great to leave here with a draw against a direct rival."

Teamsheet

Olympique Lyonnais

 1-2

 SM Caen

 

Rémi Garde (Lyon coach): "We lacked the tactical and physical resources to win against a side made it really tough for us once they got in front. Dropping points at home like this against a side fighting against relegation makes it much harder for us. The league is not finished but this is really not a good result. It is not the best way to prepare (for the Champions League match against APOEL) but then had we won we might have said that it could leave us over-confident. Every game has its own story and the scent of the Champions League will no doubt make for a very different night on Tuesday."

Franck Dumas (Caen coach): "I am delighted for the players. These are three important points for us. I hope this is just the start of something. The temperament was right and we got the breaks in front of goal for the first time in a long time. We have missed that winning feeling. The players thoroughly deserve the win. I had said that anything we took from this game would be a bonus. Nobody thought we would get anything here."

Teamsheet

Stade Rennais FC

 1-0

 FC Sochaux-Montbéliard

Frédéric Antonetti (Rennes coach): "It is a relief. We played well for an hour but our finishing was poor, which is understandable given that this was our third match in a week, while Sochaux didn't play last weekend. But we should have killed the game off sooner. The last pass was sometimes missing, or we failed to take advantage of the counter-attacking opportunities in the second half. And we suffered when they had four strikers on the pitch. We owe the win to our goalkeeper and our centre-halves. But we mustn't forget the first half. It has been a good week, even if we were unable to train normally because of the cold. Erding still needs to find his rhythm, but the goal will do him, and us, good. He is mobile, brave and a good pivot. He brings freshness and competition for places."

Mécha Bazdarevic (Sochaux coach): "We played too high up the park in the first half, and didn't use the ball well. We lost the ball too easily and there were too many errors. We improved after half-time, and deserved to equalise but the goal (by Privat) was disallowed. We need to hang on in there and build on our second-half performance, even if it is true that Rennes were not as good physically in the second half."

Teamsheet

Stade Brestois 29

 1-1

 Dijon FCO

 

Alex Dupont (Brest coach) "It is a point that we looked unlikely to get, but it came from our courage and the players' self-sacrifice. We put everything we had left into trying to get an equaliser. There was very little between the sides and we both tried to win it. We were bent over backwards, folded in half, but we never broke. Tonight shows that we must always keep going right until the end. The spirit shown gives me reason to believe for the future but it will be difficult. The bad news is that we have lost John (Ayité, injured) and Issam (Jemaa, sent off)."

Patrice Carteron (Dijon coach): "Brest got their equaliser because of a massive error by us. It is at times like that that our lack of experience shows. We had been pretty solid and gave away very few chances. Had Elana not been on top form, we could have been 1-0 or even 2-0 up at half-time. I was pleased with the spirit shown by the players. They played for one another, and I am quite satisfied. It is a good point even if we did deserve all three."

Teamsheet

LOSC Lille Métropole

 4-5 Girondins de Bordeaux

Rudi Garcia (Lille coach): "A coach cannot be happy when it is Operation Open All the Doors in defence. How many goals do we need to score to draw a game? When you look at the way we played at the start of the second half, it is only really one point dropped. There were a lot of things that I liked. There were positives. To come back from 4-1 down to 4-4 is certainly something. And the young lads who came on too, brought us some fresh enthusiasm, which is good. But once again I will have to reach certain conclusions from this. We need to find a balance quickly. It is not simple for anyone, but before looking at what other teams have done we need to be capable of winning our own games. Let's resolve our problems and win some games. Then we can start looking at what other teams are doing. (The title) has never been an objective because we don't have the means. So in that sense we have not lost anything in particular. We want to be in the top three. We are still third, even if Marseille didn't play. We need to perform well in our next few games."

Francis Gillot (Bordeaux coach): "I don't think many teams have managed to score five goals here. Even if we showed signs of weakness in allowing them to come back into it, we still showed a lot of good things. I am happy for Obraniak. He had already scored last week, and today he did it again. That's three goals for him already. We should have signed him sooner. Only tomorrow will we realise what we have done. It had been said that the five-man backline was a defensive system. There is no absolute truth in football - you can play with five at the back and score five goals. People need to be careful with what they say."

Teamsheet

OGC Nice

 0-0

 Paris Saint-Germain

 

René Marsiglia (Nice coach): "It is a good point in many respects. We needed reassurance after our performance at Ajaccio. We dared to put Paris under pressure, although we also had one or two scary moments at the end. In our situation, this result against a great PSG side is immensely satisfying. We are proud of what we managed to do, of the energy everyone put in and of the spirit shown to take a point. And we have rediscovered our defensive solidity."

Carlo Ancelotti (Paris Saint-Germain coach): "We wanted to win the match, but we had some difficulty. We had three or four chances to win it late on. It is still a good result, we cannot win every game. We played some good football with lots of intensity. Nice resisted well, with a good midfield. The result is the right one. This point allows us to go back to the top. Next week will be important with the Cup match in midweek and then the game against Montpellier next Sunday."

Teamsheet

Toulouse FC

 0-1

 AS Saint-Etienne

 

Alain Casanova (Toulouse coach): "We played well in the first half. Saint-Etienne scored from one of their few chances and we found ourselves behind. We made mistakes and paid for them, and we are still struggling to put the ball in the net. But it will come. It is a bad result against a direct rival but there is still a long way to go. The desire and spirit are there, but it is not enough. We need to keep working hard to try and get closer to the teams above us again. But there were still positive signs for the future."

Christophe Galtier (Saint-Etienne coach): "It is a great result against a direct rival. The conditions were not easy, but we managed to find a way through against a side who are very strong at home. We used the ball well even if Toulouse controlled the game. It is not easy to win here, so it is a very good result and it would be great if we could build on this in our coming games against Rennes and Lorient. If we want to hang on in there at the top then we need to take something from these games."

Teamsheet

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