Winning start for French champions

Reigning Ligue 1 champions Lyon enjoyed a convincing start to the defence of their title on today with a comfortable win over Auxerre.

Led by former Portsmouth boss Alain Perrin, Lyon dominated from the outset and goals from ex-Liverpool and Aston Villa striker Milan Baros and Karim Benzema has seen them latch on to Valenciennes at the top of the early standings.

Lyon’s performance was more impressive than the scoreline suggested, although they failed to create enough clear-cut chances to win by a bigger margin.

In the Sunday’s other game, Marko Basa bagged the only goal as Le Mans got their new campaign off to a winning start by beating Ligue 1 newcomers Metz.

New Le Mans coach Rudi Garcia will be pleased to have won his first game in charge, but his Metz counterpart, Francis De Taddeo, can take a lot of positives from a battling display.