First Really Notable Effort from Reims in a Long Time

Reims' period of glory, at top level in French football, has long passed. The last time they won the French title was in 1962.

And yet Stade Reims holds six national title wins, only one less than Olympique Lyonnais.

But there was no doubt, however, that Lyon was the favourite to win the encounter on this third matchday of Ligue 1.
Especially because Lyon was leading in the standings, and had basically breezed past Nice and Sochaux on matchdays 1 and 2.

Reims, though, proved a much harder nut to crack.

They defended well, played the counter-attack card properly, and were lucky as well.
Yes, luck must be acknowledged because Lyon had a penalty, and thus could have scored in the 72nd minute. But Grenier missed, and the score remained 0-0.
Then, only 4 minutes later, Fortes scored an extremely spectacular diagonal goal from the edge of the penalty area, and that was all in terms of goals.

Reims now has the same number of points as Lyon, while Marseille remains the only team with maximum points (pending Saint-Etienne's match at Lille tomorrow).

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