What a remarkable season for Olympique Lyon. Dead last in early December after 14 games played with a 1-4-9 record: 19 games later, they are tied with Lens at 50 points (going 14-1-4 in that stretch) for the final European spot with one match to go. (But Lens win the GD tiebreaker.) And they play PSG on 25th May in the Coupe de France finale. Who’d have predicted this in early December? Amazing.
I can comment on this now that I've secured tickets for the final. Lyon had a couple of very bad managers but went for a local guy who worked a while for Red Star. Pierre Sage was well thought of all around and fit the bill on staying as manager in the long run and it proved to be a right decision. We are still massive favorites to win this final but kudos for Sage for turning things around: 16 pts halfway through the season, 34 pts in the 2nd half of the season!
Lille and Brest play for 3rd/4th with third getting an automatic spot into the Champions league . They have the same points and separated by 2 in GD with Lille having the advantage.
Fantastic finish to Ligue 1. Most exciting of all the Euro leagues this weekend: 1) Brest in the CL thanks to a crushing equalizer in Lille by Nice. 2) Lyon complete the miracle comeback season to qualify for Europe thanks to another crushing equalizer, in Lens by Montpellier. 3) Lorient…oh so close to overcoming their huge goal differential vis a vis Metz to stay alive for a relegation playoff chance. * * OK, I watched the whiparound coverage in USA on BeIN Sports 6. English announcers, so maybe the same as what aired in the UK, dunno. Very entertaining, but the whole time they kept saying that Lorient making up 7 goals on Metz would leapfrog them to 16th and a playoff survival chance. Yet it was easy to see that Metz would win the tiebreak (road goals in HTH in this case), so Lorient did need another. Which they clearly knew as they kept pressing Clermont till the very end up 5-0, knowing PSG beat Metz 2-0.. The announcers apologized soon after all the matches were over, clarifying that instead, Metz qualified for the playoff after all. ==> These guys and their producers had ample time to prepare, jot down all the scenarios, which teams won HTH tiebreakers. No excuses: awful broadcasting for that aspect of an otherwise hugely fun TV viewing.
Lorient getting relegated (crazy circumstances right!) will be a blow to the Foley 'group'. Can imagine we'll be asked to help where possible with either youngster loans, or players bought by us to immediately loan to them. Not that I know much about the standard of Ligue 2 to comment on what kind of players would be useful for them.
Lorient is basically a Ligue 2 club anyway. Possibly the most yo-yo club in the country between the top 2 divisions.
That's pretty harsh mate. If you'd ask me last night who should have stayed up I probably would have told you Lorient as more goals scored but the rules do state that it's first general goal difference then H2H opposition with away goals counting (Metz having won at Lorient 3-2 being the clincher as Lorient beat them at home 2-1). Don't think Lorient can be too buggered by the whole thing though as the place has been gloomy all season (manager Régis Le Bris started brighthly but he's been really shit in terms of team management and media communication) and that the odds of them staying up were very, very slim (actually surprised we won at Metz but the Lorrains really are awful). Oh well, roll on Saturday for the Coupe de France final.
Not the best weekend for Udinese. Failed to clinch at their final Bluenergy match, and could only manage to draw Empoli in the final seconds, desperately. Rivals Cagliari and Verona won, clinching safety, plus Frosinone also win, all things removing poker “outs” in case Udinese draw or lose next weekend at Frosinone. At least they’ve avoided Sassuolo’s fate, but of course they can still be the 3rd relegee. Barring a 9-goal differential swing, UDI hold the tiebreak over EMP. Sooo… Frosinone vs Udinese Empoli vs Roma - UDI in if they win, or EMP fail to win. - FRO in with win/draw, or EMP fail to win - EMP in if they win I don’t see how Roma will be motivated. Barring a massive goal diff gain on Atalanta, they’re guaranteed 6th, out of CL. Nor can city rivals Lazio catch them because of GD tiebreaker. So look for Empoli to win and clinch safety. Meaning Udinese must win at Frosinone. Well, they have quadruple the road victories over home wins, so best to be on the road. But my gut tells me that the efforts of “emergency savior coach” Fabio Cannavaro will be for nought; that they’ll snatch their 20th draw (is that a record?) and finish the dreaded 18th by one point behind Empoli. That’s my head not heart talking.
