On Matchday 22 of the 2025-2026 Ligue 1 season, Paris Saint-Germain lost 3-1 to Rennes at Roazhon Park. A painful defeat that allowed RC Lens to reclaim the top spot in the standings.
Matchday Results –
Current Standings –
PSG dominated against Rennes and created numerous chances, but lacked efficiency and composure. This proved costly against a Rennes side revitalized by their recent coaching change. Sébastien Tambouret has instilled fighting spirit and enthusiasm during his interim spell, and the Parisians’ mistakes helped matters.
Lens capitalized on this, delivering a masterclass in efficiency, as the match against Paris FC was more balanced than a 5-0 scoreline (14 shots to 12 in favor of Lens, 43% possession for RCL). But, as is often said, that’s part of football, and there’s merit in not missing opportunities.
Like holding onto a lead, something OM seems to have forgotten how to do. Leading 2-0 against Strasbourg and looking to pull themselves out of their slump, the Marseille club suffered another late comeback. This has created significant tension at the Vélodrome, further complicating the race for European qualification. Even though Strasbourg didn’t win and haven’t closed the gap. Lille’s struggles continue (the infamous “crisis of efficiency”) against Brest (14 shots to 7 and 68% possession for Lille).
Monaco took advantage of the situation to rejoin the European pack, bouncing back against a Nantes side that seems to have run out of options to escape the relegation zone. A victory that could do Monaco a world of good before hosting PSG on Tuesday in the first leg of their Champions League playoff, even if it was far from a convincing performance (5 shots to 8 and 51% possession for Nantes, with a red card for Monaco’s Aleksandr Golovin in the 65th minute, when the score was 3-1). There are also concerns about injuries to Lamine Camara and Maghnes Akliouche.
Lyon, meanwhile, confirmed their new direction in the season by consolidating their third place, a position they are guaranteed to hold next week, as they are 6 points behind second place and 5 points ahead of fourth. A very impressive Lyon surge was confirmed with a hard-fought victory against a Nice side that remains ineffective and lost Elye Wahi to injury early in the match.
In the middle of the table, Lorient emerged victorious against Angers, keeping their European hopes alive. Angers may well have some regrets given the chances they created. Nothing is decided yet, but Lorient are the closest to pulling off a major upset. Especially since Toulouse stumbled against Le Havre, who secured a valuable victory in their fight for survival.
Meanwhile, Auxerre, as they did a few weeks ago, won their crucial match against Metz. It was a hard-fought contest that doesn’t seal Metz’s fate and isn’t enough to give Auxerre any peace of mind, but it could prove very valuable at the end of the season.
