French Ligue 1 preview

AJ Ajaccio will welcome big spending Paris Saint Germain in Saturday's French Ligue 1 fixture. The visitors were held to a two all draw on the opening day of the French football season. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a brace to rescue his team from suffering a defeat against FC Lorient. Ajaccio's goal keeper, Francesco Ochoa is the key man for the hosts. Ochoa is known for his wonderful reflexes. He must perform better than Lorient's Audard if his team is to stand a chance of escaping defeat in the hands of the Les Parisiens. Carlo Ancelotii's men are expected to win this game with ease. They dropped two points on the opening day and anything short of a win will be unaccetable by the PSG board. They've spent a lot of money during the summer by acquiring the likes of Lucas Moura for over £35million.

Back from suspension
 Javier Pastore will be available for this match after serving a one match ban. His touches were sorely missed in the first match of the season. Ezequiel Lavezzi, Ibrahimovic and Nene will not be short of ood deliveries when 'El Flaco' is named in the starting line up.
Date: 19th August, 2012
Time: 18:00 GMT
Our prediction
Ajaccio 1-3 PSG


Also on  Sunday, Girondis Bordeaux will host Stade Rennais. The 2008 league champions will hope to improve on their performance this season after missing out on the UEFA Champions League qualification.
Other matches
Defending champions, Montpellier will be away to FC Lorient. Lille played a one all draw against AS Nancy on Friday night. Olympique Lyonnais will welcome Troyes to the Stade de France. The former champions won last week's game by a lone goal. Valenciennes will meet OGC Nice while Bstia will tackle Stade de Reims.

History-making APOEL eliminates French giants!

APOEL Nicosia became the first team from Cyprus to reach the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League after a dramatic penalty shoot out victory over Olympique Lyonnais of France. The French team were drawn against the debutants when the finished second in the group phase and many expected the French Ligue 1 side to progress without any problem, but the Cypriot had others ideas. Apoel were beaten 1-0 in Lyon three weeks ago and the Cypriot defeated Lyon by the same margin at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia. After a barren 30 minutes of extra time the match winner was decided via penalties as the two sides settled for a 1-1 aggregate scoreline. Lisandro Lopez's penalty crept in after the Apoel keeper had saved it, but that wasn't enough for the debutants to progress at the expense of their highly favoured opponents.

Montpellier goes top in France.

Nigerian International, John Chukwudi Utaka has fired his Ligue 1 outfit to the top of the table standings in France. The Nigerian scored an 80th minute goal to seal a 1-0 victory over 2008 League Champions Girondis Bordeaux. This is his second goal for his team in two successive matches.
 Erstwhile league leaders, PSG surrendered their position at the summit of the French Ligue when they played a pulsating 4-4 draw against former Champions Olympic Lyon in an away match.