Ligue 1: Olivier Giroud scores but Lille draw, Strasbourg, Auxerre and Angers win

Olivier Giroud left Ligue 1 in June 2012, fresh from an improbable French league title with Montpellier Hérault Sport Club (MHSC). Thirteen years later, the landscape of the French football championship has changed significantly. Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) now dominates the national titles, and his former club is no longer even part of the elite, having been relegated to the lower tier a few months ago after a disastrous season.

But one thing seems immutable: Olivier Giroud scores, and scores again. On his return to France, the French national team's all-time leading scorer didn't wait long to find the net. On Sunday, August 17, Lille's new center forward needed just eleven minutes in Brest, finishing off a lovely move with his left foot, initiated by a pass from his Portuguese teammate Félix Correia.

While the 2018 world champion with Les Bleus has had a dream start to the season, his team can't say the same. Despite scoring three goals, Lille drew 3-3 at the Stade Francis-Le Blé, thanks in part to a brace from Malian midfielder Kamory Doumbia, and are already losing ground to rival clubs like Monaco, Rennes, and Lyon, all of whom won earlier this weekend.

During Olivier Giroud's final years as a Ligue 1 player, Paris Football Club (PFC) was still at the bottom of the National table, France's third division. Things have changed for the better once again. PFC has returned to the top flight , backed by the Arnault family, and now has a budget far larger than that of a mere promoted team.

But its president is nevertheless cautious. "We have to be serious and humble. We have a learning curve to take this year, so the goal will be to stay in the league while avoiding scaring ourselves too much," Pierre Ferracci explained to Le Monde before the first matchday of the championship. He knows that the road will be long before they can compete with their neighbors PSG, and he received a further reminder of this on Sunday. Away to Angers, his team lacked imagination in attack and lost 1-0, thanks to an early goal from striker Estéban Lepaul.

In the other matches of the day, Ligue 2 champions Lorient suffered the same fate as PFC, losing by the narrowest of margins to Auxerre, in a duel between two teams that should be fighting for survival. History does not yet say whether Lassine Sinayoko's right-footed goal will have an impact at the end of the season, but it at least allows Auxerre to start the 2025-2026 season calmly, a few months after finishing the previous one in a surprising ^11th place. Finally, the ambitious Strasbourg team waited until the final minutes and a precise header from Argentinian Joaquin Panichelli to come back from Metz, another promoted team , with a 1-0 victory.