Which French clubs will accompany Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League next season? As the 31st day of Ligue 1 opens this Friday evening – with the Montpellier Hérault SC-FC Nantes meeting – Le Figaro takes stock of the final sprint in the race for the most beautiful European competition.
With its victory at home against LOSC (1-0) – one of its direct competitors – this Wednesday evening, in a late match of the 29th day of the championship, AS Monaco struck a major blow. Indeed, with now 58 points on the clock and ten units ahead of 5th – OGC Nice – while there are only twelve points left to distribute, the Principality club has (almost) validated its ticket for the next edition of the Champions League. Better still, Wissam Ben Yedder and his teammates are (very) well on their way to competing in the group stage of the “Coupe aux Grandes Oreilles” since they distanced themselves from fourth place, synonymous with play-offs during the summer.
“It’s a big step further. A new milestone has been reached in a very big match. Lille played well like us. This victory is very important towards the Champions League, declared Adi Hütter, the Monegasque coach after his team’s victory this Wednesday evening. I think it’s a great success for the podium especially. This victory also proves our solidity with a new clean sheet after that of Brest. We go through the stages. We gain confidence at all levels. It’s important for the final sprint.” With a very affordable schedule – Olympique Lyonnais away, Clermont Foot 63 at home and a trip to Montpellier Hérault SC to finish – ASM has every reason to believe in a direct qualification for the C1.
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Behind Paris Saint-Germain and AS Monaco, two teams are fighting to finish on the last step of the podium. These are Stade Brestois (3rd, 53 points) and LOSC (4th, 52 points). The Ty-Zefs and the Mastiffs have made the hole compared to OGC Nice and should – barring a twist – compete for the third and final direct ticket for the group stage of the Champions League. The Bretons have a (slight) advantage but remain on two setbacks in a row, against Olympique Lyonnais (4-3) and AS Monaco (0-2). The Northerners have just lost against a direct competitor – ASM – and have a particularly difficult schedule with the receptions of OL in two weeks and OGC Nice on the last day. Suffice to say that the race for the podium appears very open.
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And both teams believe in it: “At the moment, it’s less successful for us. It’s a little more complicated. We want to go as high as possible and we believe in it, I believe in everything,” declared Éric Roy, the Brest coach, last Sunday on the sidelines of the setback against the Principality club. For his part, Lille coach Paulo Fonseca explained, Wednesday evening after the defeat against ASM, that it was necessary to “stay positive and maintain confidence”.
Stade Brestois and (especially) LOSC must, however, be wary of OGC Nice. Indeed, the Aiglons are certainly behind in the standings – they are respectively five and four points behind the Bretons and the Northerners -, but they have not (yet) said their last word in the race for the Champions League. “The goal this season is the top 6. We are ambitious collectively and individually. We have nothing to lose in this last sprint, we must aim high and win matches,” confided Marcin Bulka, the Nice goalkeeper, after the draw conceded in numerical superiority at the Stade Vélodrome (2-2).
And the people of Nice can (legitimately) hope to recover 4th place. On the one hand, after a (long) complicated period, they have not lost in three matches. Which is encouraging. On the other hand, they travel to the Mastiffs pitch on the last day of the championship and will therefore have the possibility of taking back three points… if successful. But to move ahead of them in the standings on the gong, they will have to have regained two points by then (because of the goal difference). This implies that Dante and his teammates should not be missed in their next three matches: against RC Strasbourg Alsace, against Paris Saint-Germain and finally against Le Havre. Will they succeed? LOSC does not want this.