France Coupe de France 2009/2010

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Coupe de France, or Coupe Charles Simon, is a competition of French football clubs, open to all professional and non-professional teams. The cup is one of many inter-French club competitions that have been organised by the French Football Federation. The first competition was held in 1918.

Created during the World War I, the cup bore the name of Charles Simon, a football player who died during the war.

The team winning the most titles is Olympique de Marseille (10 times), with Paris Saint Germain second with seven wins. Three players have won the cup five times: Marceau Sommerlynck (1946, 1947, 1948, 1953 and 1955), Dominique Bathenay (1974, 1975, 1977, 1982 and 1983) and Alain Roche (1986, 1987, 1993, 1995 and 1998 )

Since 1927, the President of France has always attended the championship match and presented the cup to the winning team's captain. Gaston Doumergue was the first French president to take part in the ceremonies.



The Coupe de France is often difficult for the bigger clubs to win, as a higher-ranked club always plays as the away side when drawn against lower-league opposition. The ties are played over one leg and played to a finish (i.e. no replays), increasing the chance of an upset if the 'lower' team plays to their best on that day. In recent seasons, several finalists (though no winners) have advanced through whilst playing in Ligue 2 or even lower in the league system, demonstrating the unpredictable nature of the competition.

The frequent triumphs of smaller clubs over large also suggests that the cup is not the top priority for the Ligue 1 clubs, although the Coupe de France is considered more important than some other equivalent competitions in European countries, such as Germany and Italy.

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The French Football Federation has decided not to allow Paris St-Germain back into the forthcoming season's Coupe de la Ligue after they were banned because their fans unveiled an offensive banner during last season's final.

Meeting on Tuesday, the FFF rejected the French Olympic committee's suggestion to reduce the club's punishment by instead forcing them to play one of their first six home league games behind closed doors.

The banner which provoked the sanction displayed derogatory comments about the Ch'tis, a colloquial name given to inhabitants of the northern region of France where PSG's final opponents Lens hail from. PSG won the game 2-1.

Despite the furore provoked by the banner - including a condemnatory reaction from French president Nicolas Sarkozy - the Olympic committee felt the sanction was too severe.

According to the FFF, however, the punishment was "appropriate to the particular nature and the seriousness of what occurred".

The federation underlined also that, as the banner was unfurled in a Coupe de la Lige match, "it was logical and proper that the punishment concerns the Coupe de la Ligue and not the French championship".

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Newly promoted Grenoble beat Rennes 1-0 Sunday to continue its successful start in the French league, while defending champion Lyon was held to a 0-0 draw at Lorient.

Title hopeful Marseille routed Auxerre 4-0.

Algeria forward Nassim Akrour scored for Grenoble with a 30-meter strike into the top corner off a backheel pass from Daniel Moreira in the 21st minute.

Rennes goalkeeper Nicolas Douchez saved a penalty kick from midfielder Sofiane Feghouli in the 9th after Moreira was fouled inside the area.

Lyon, which has four points after two rounds, was denied a victory by Lorient goalkeeper Fabien Audard.

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Nice edged Auxerre 1-0 with a goal from Alaeddine Yahia, while Rennes rallied late to beat Lille 2-1 in the French league.

Bruno Cheyrou and substitute Moussa Sow scored in stoppage time to give Rennes its first win this season.

Yohan Cabaye gave Lille the lead in the 34th, but Cheyrou equalized in the first minute of injury time, before Sow scored in the 93rd.

In Auxerre, Yahia headed Nice in front in the 29th minute. Auxerre had a chance to equalize in the 45th with a penalty, but Kevin Lejeune missed.

Marseille and Lyon share the lead with seven points after three rounds.

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Ludovic Obraniak’s second-half goal gave Lille a surprise 2-1 win over Bordeaux in the French league.

The midfielder sent a powerful shot from the edge of the box into the top corner in the 76th minute, as Lille rallied from a goal down for its first win of the season.

Argentina forward Fernando Cavenaghi had given Bordeaux the lead with a semi-volley from 25 yards under the crossbar in the 28th. Brazilian midfielder Michel Bastos then beat the offside trap to level for Lille in the 31st, placing the ball out of goalkeeper Ulrich Rame’s reach.

Rennes held Toulouse to a scoreless draw in a game with few scoring chances

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Mateja Kezman scored from an early penalty kick Sunday to lead Paris Saint-Germain to a 1-0 victory over Nantes and into third place in the French league.

PSG was awarded the penalty in the seventh minute after defender Ibrahim Tall pushed striker Guillaume Hoarau in the back, and Kezman celebrated his full debut for PSG by thumping the spot kick into the top-left corner.

Fahid Ben Khalfallah and Benjamin Nivet scored to lead Caen 2-0 over struggling Saint-Etienne, which dropped into the relegation zone.

Ben Khalfallah put Caen ahead in the 28th minute from close range after goalkeeper Jody Viviani parried a free kick into his path. Nivet sealed the win in the second minute of injury time after Viviani spilled Julien Toudic’s shot.

Caen has seven points from five rounds and is in ninth spot, while Saint-Etienne’s fourth loss puts it in 18th spot with three points—one ahead of 19th-place Sochaux, which was held to a 1-1 home draw by Lille on Sunday.

Sochaux striker Sloan Privat got his first career league goal off a pass from Mevlut Erding in the 47th.

Michel Bastos equalized for Lille with a powerful free kick from 30 meters (yards) in the 62nd, but Erding missed a chance to win it for Sochaux when he just failed to gather a cross from the left in the 90th.

Lyon’s 3-2 win over Nice was secured thanks to a penalty from Karim Benzema deep into injury time, after Vincent Hognon appeared to accidentally handle the ball when sliding to make a tackle.

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Paris St Germain moved to third place in Ligue 1 on Sunday with a 1-0 win at the Parc des Princes over bottom club Nantes.

Serbian midfielder Mateja Kezman, a former Partizan Belgrade, PSV Eindhoven and Chelsea player, converted a penalty after Guirane Ndaw fouled Guillaume Hoarau.

The Paris club, who were playing without suspended captain Claude Makelele, dominated the game throughout but were unable to penetrate a sturdy Nantes defence.

“It was a difficult match but we won. It’s good to be back to the leading bunch,” midfielder Stephane Sessegnon told the French television channel Canal Plus.

After three wins, a draw and a defeat, PSG are on 10 points, ahead of promoted Grenoble on goal difference. League leaders Olympique Lyon, who host Fiorentina in their Champions League opener on Wednesday.

Lyon came from behind to grab a 3-2 home win over Nice on Saturday thanks to a controversial free-kick and a stoppage time penalty.

Olympique Marseille, who host Liverpool on Tuesday, are second on 11 after drawing 1-1, also on Saturday, at Girondins Bordeaux, runners-up last season, who will play Chelsea away on Tuesday.

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Seven-times champions Olympique Lyon extended their lead to five points with a 2-1 win over Nancy after France striker Karim Benzema scored his sixth goal in seven league games.

Lyon top the table on 19 points from seven games, with surprise package Toulouse second five points back and Olympique Marseille in third, a further point adrift.

Toulouse, who have not won a significant title since 1957, moved into second by winning 1-0 at Valenciennes courtesy of a goal in added time by Andre-Pierre Gignac.

Marseille had to be content with a 1-1 draw at Le Mans on Saturday and have now gone five matches without victory in all competitions. The former European champions claimed they should have been awarded a second goal on a header by Mamadou Samassa but the referee ruled the ball had not entirely crossed the line.

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A splendid Karim Benzema goal helped Olympique Lyon to a 2-0 home win over Le Mans that sent the seven-times champions four points clear at the top of Ligue 1 on Sunday.

France striker Benzema raced into the box after a fine solo run down the right and fired into the top corner from a tight angle for his eighth league goal this season on 21 minutes.

Brazilian midfielder Juninho doubled the advantage in the 57th minute, exploiting a defensive blunder to score with a low shot from inside the area.

Lyon, chasing an eighth successive title, move on to 27 points from 12 games, four points ahead of Olympique Marseille, who recovered from a lean spell to beat St Etienne 3-1 to climb to second on Saturday.

Girondins Bordeaux dropped a spot to third, two further points adrift, afters slumping to a 1-0 defeat at strugglers Nancy on Saturday. Last season’s runners-up are level on points with fourth-placed Toulouse, who lost 1-0 at home to Caen.

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Champions Lyon dropped two precious points in an entertaining 1-1 draw with visitors Rennes Sunday, boosting Paris Saint Germain's unlikely bid for a first league title in 19 years.

PSG had earlier closed the gap with a commanding 4-1 win over Nancy which moved them back up to second place. They are now four points behind the champions.

After a frustrating first half in which both sides spurned chances Lyon looked to have re-established their six-point lead through an unstoppable Kim Kallstrom goal in the 66th minute.

However, Rennes, pulled level in the last minute with Jimmy Briand finally finding the net after spurning a host of chances in the game.

Rennes had the ball in the Lyon net as early as the 10th minute only for the referee to disallow Carlos Bocanegra's header for the American defender's foul on Lyon defender John Mensah.

Both sides enjoyed half-chances at breaking the deadlock, but Lyon emerged for the second period fired up.

A minute after the restart, Ederson coasted onto a Karim Benzema pass before unleashing a shot which took a deflection off the Rennes upright.

Two minutes later Briand gave Rennes a glimmer of hope as he ran down on goal only for Mensah to come to Lyon's rescue.

Ederson threatened again almost immediately, the Brazilian finishing off a smart move between Juninho, Abdulkader Keita and Benzema with a sublime angled, shot with the outside of his boot which coasted just over Nicolas Douchez's crossbar.

Rennes then missed arguably the chance of the match when Swedish captain Petter Hansson picked up a loose ball from a freekick in the six yard box, only to send his shot over the crossbar.

A double substitution by Lyon coach Claude Puel then proved inspirational, with Miralem Pjanic replacing Ederson and Jean II Makoun coming on for Juninho in the 62nd minute.

Three minutes later, Pjanic picked up Benzema's pass on the right and his cross reached the back post from where Kallstrom made no mistake beating Douchez.

Briand was quilty of wasting another golden chance on 68 minutes, his shot from another one-on-one with goalkeeper Hugo Lloris going wide of the post.

Rennes maintained the pressure and that finally paid off when Briand pounced on a deflection from Hansson to beat Lloris from close range.

Earlier a brace from striker Guillaume Hoarau, either side of Ludovic Giuly's 13th minute strike, gave PSG a 3-1 half-time lead after Julien Ferret had briefly reduced the arrears for Nancy in the 29th minute.

A fourth goal from Stephane Sessegnon after the interval put a share of the points firmly beyond Nancy's reach.

But despite the convincing win, and with his side in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup, PSG coach Paul Le Guen believes PSG will face a testing few weeks.

"I'm a little worried because there's not a lot of room for manoeuvre in the squad and we will lose Claude Makelele and Stephane Sessegnon through suspension for some important matches," said the coach.

"Also we will be without Gregory Bourillon who is injured for a few more weeks."

Marseille kept in contention with a 1-0 win away to Caen while Bordeaux made sure they stayed in the chase with a 1-0 win at home to Lorient.

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Marseille moved into pole position in the French league on Sunday with a 4-1 destruction of Grenoble at the Stade Velodrome, as serial champions Lyon could only draw 2-2 at home to Monaco.

Marseille romped to victory - and a one-point lead - with four second-half goals as the former European champions raced onto 61 points from 31 games to overhaul overnight leaders Bordeaux, who won 2-0 at Auxerre on Saturday with goals from Brazilians Fernando and Geraldo Wendel.

Lyon, aiming for an eighth straight title, were set to go one point clear once again if they beat Monaco.

But, true to their recent inconsistent form, they had to thank Frederic Piquionne for saving them with an acrobatic late equaliser after Juan Pablo Pino looked to have hit a second-half winner for Monaco.

With six games remaining, Marseille are now in the box seat as they home in on a first title in 17 years.

The southerners, seeking a first league title in 17 years, took things easy in the opening period against a Grenoble side who are still not safe from the drop before Nigerian defender Taye Taiwo grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck for the hosts.

Taiwo fired in from the penalty spot after 52 minutes after Mathieu Valbuena was brought down in the box to sooth increasingly restless fans and for good measure he then hit the third on 64 minutes after Vitorino Hilton had first fired home number two, deflecting a Valbuena effort.

Hatem Ben Arfa and Lorik Cana then combined to set up Brazilian Brandao, who fired home a fizzing effort before Laurent Courtois notched a consolation in stoppage time.

Monaco took the lead on 33 minutes through Croatian forward Jerko Leko, astutely fed by Korean Park Chu Young, who has made a solid impression since arriving at Monaco in the summer from FC Seoul.

Twenty minutes after the restart Cris bagged the equaliser following a cross by Juninho only for Pino to beat the offside trap and skip round Hugo Lloris in the Lyon goal before firing home from an acute angle.

Neither Lille nor Paris Saint Germain were able to take advantage of Lyon's hiccup as they parted 0-0 Sunday to take their points tally to 56, level with Toulouse, who thanked Andre-Pierre Gignac's 19th goal of the campaign for a win over struggling Nantes.

PSG have not won at Lille in 12 years and Sunday's stalemate means they have not even scored in the fixture in six attempts.

"It's a good point earned as they put us under a lot of pressure in the first half," said PSG coach Paul Le Guen. "It keeps us in touch," he added.

Recent losses to Marseille and Toulouse have kept the Parisians dreaming more of a Europa League place than the Champions League, which also looks beyond a Lille side whose top six placing is no fluke as they have the best home record in France