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With exciting games set to light up Ligue 1 this weekend, we look at five key numbers that will help understand the enthralling round of games
With only five games left in the Ligue 1 season, teams at the top and bottom ends of the table are playing their best football, trying to get themselves over the line, making Gameweek 34 the most exciting weekend of Ligue 1 football so far this season.
With a top-of-the-table clash between second-place Marseille and third-place Lens set to highlight the Gameweek, there is more than enough action to seduce fans, and we have highlighted five key numbers that are crucial to Gameweek 34.
16
Reims’ Folarin Balogun has scored 18 goals in the 2022/23 Ligue 1 season, breaking the record for the most goals scored by a Reims player in a single league campaign this century. In addition to being record-breaking Balogun’s goals have been crucial.
The Arsenal loanees’ 18 goals have earned Reims 16 points in Ligue 1 this season, the most of any player in the French top flight, and when he plays against Lille in Gameweek 34, he could extend his current record.
20
Currently, there are three players in Ligue 1 with 20 or more goals in the 2022/23 season, more than any other top five European league bar the Premier League, which also has three players with 20 or more goals.
The record for the most players in a single season to reach at least 20 Ligue 1 goals in the 21st century is four, set in the 2016/17 season when Edinson Cavani, Alexandre Lacazette, Radamel Falcao, and Bafe Gomis all hit at least 20 goals for the season.
That record could fall this season, with a host of players teeming to join Kylian Mbappe, Jonathan David, and Alexandre Lacazette, who have already scored 20 or more goals this season.
Reims’ Balogun, and Lens’ Lois Openda are both on 18 goals with five matches left, and it would be hard to bet against at least one of them reaching the magic number 20.
23
Lens’ Openda has been a revelation in Ligue 1 this season, scoring 18 goals and leading an unlikely title charge for the hardly heralded club.
Openda’s goals have helped him write his name in a number of paragraphs of Lens’ record books, including becoming the youngest player to score 18 goals or more in a single Ligue 1 season for Lens since 1967.
At 23 years and 79 days, Openda is the youngest player this century to score this many goals for Lens in one campaign, and with five games to go, he could improve his standing, starting with the blockbuster clash against Marseille.
35
On the other side of the Lens versus Marseille clash is L’OM’s Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez, who has been the club’s player of the season so far, scoring 13 goals in Ligue 1 to help Marseille stay in the title race.
At 35 years old, Alexis has become the oldest player to score that many goals for Marseille in a single Ligue 1 season since at least the 1947/48 season.
His goals have kept Marseille in the title chase, and they will depend on him when they take on Lens in a game that could decide whether they are able to continue the chase.
215
With 158 goals and 57 assists, Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe set a new record for the most direct goal contributions in Ligue 1 since the 2006/07 season, and he could extend his lead at the top when Les Parisiens take on relegation battlers Troyes in the last game of Gameweek 34.
The PSG frontman has been involved in a total of 215 goals in Ligue 1, and at only 24 years old, the Frenchman is certain to extend his record at the top as long as he remains with the Paris club.
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