Ligue 1: French Fancy

Journeyman & Co YTS member Jamie Clark is back, moving on from his hatred of Scottish football, the youngster gives us a run down on all things Ligue 1.

Loulou Nicollin said he would get a dyed mohican if his club Montpellier were to win Ligue 1.

One evening, whilst watching Sky Sports News I started to look at the league tables from around the world. One caught my eye. The French football league, known as Ligue 1. It’s a league that I have never followed nor been interested in until now. When I’ve seen the French teams playing in the Champions League I’ve always thought the level of football wasn’t good enough to compete with teams from the English Premier League, LA Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga. However AS Monaco FC did reach the Champions League final in 2004. They have since been relegated to Ligue 2. `

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) are one of the most world-wide renowned clubs in the league and a club that has a lot of Money thrown in to get into the Champions League, a competition they have been absent from since 2004/05 and 2 years later they fell way short by coming a shocking 15th in the league just a few points above relegation. Could the money invested from a Qatar Investment Authority be enough to gain champions league football and a French league title?

We’re just going to look at the last day of the season. The most exciting part of any season, especially when there’s so much to play for at both ends of the table. Going into the last day, this is how the league table stood.

1 Montpellier Hérault SC

37 24 7 6 66 33 +33 79

2 Paris Saint-Germain

37 22 10 5 73 40 +33 76

3 LOSC Lille Métropole

37 20 11 6 68 38 +30 71

4 Olympique Lyonnais

37 19 7 11 61 47 +14 64

5 Girondins de Bordeaux

37 15 13 9 50 39 +11 58

6 AS Saint-Etienne

37 16 9 12 47 42 +5 57

7 Stade Rennais FC

37 16 9 12 48 44 +4 57

8 Toulouse FC

37 15 11 11 37 32 +5 56

9 Evian TG FC

37 13 11 13 54 54 0 50

10 Olympique de Marseille

37 12 12 13 45 40 +5 48

11 AS Nancy Lorraine

37 11 12 14 37 44 -7 45

12 Valenciennes FC

37 11 7 19 37 49 -12 40

13 OGC Nice

37 9 12 16 35 43 -8 39

14 FC Lorient

37 9 12 16 34 47 -13 39

15 FC Sochaux-Montbéliard

37 10 9 18 39 60 -21 39

16 Stade Brestois 29

37 7 17 13 30 38 -8 38

17 SM Caen

37 9 11 17 38 56 -18 38

18 AC Ajaccio

37 8 14 15 38 61 -23 38

19 Dijon FCO

37 9 9 19 38 58 -20 36

20 AJ Auxerre

37 7 13 17 45 55 -10 34

So, as you can see, going into the last day there is still 8 teams battling for survival, some are safer than others but could still go down. There are also two teams fighting to get their hands on that trophy. The Ligue 1’s most experienced club PSG, who have been in the league since 1974, a league record. Also Montpellier Herault FC who went into the last day top of the table, leading by 3 points.

What makes the last day so exciting and special is that 8 out of the 10 games all involve a club or clubs that are fighting for the title or for their Ligue 1 lives.

The two other games are between teams that were playing for position and pride.

LOSC Lille Metropole vs AS Nancy Lorraine- Lille started the day in 3rd with 71 points, 5 behind PSG and 5 ahead of Lyon. They were in a European spot but will be disappointed with their season as they were the 2010/11 champions. With the world class player Eden Hazard in the team who looks like coming over the channel to the Premier League next season and even Joe Cole, on loan for a season has played well for Lille this season although he has missed out in the later stage of the season.

The game ended 4-1 on the last day. Eden Hazard scored a Hat-Trick on what was, according to speculation, his last game for Lille.

The other game was AS Saint-Etienne vs Girondins De Bordeaux- the game ended 2-3 this meant Bordeaux stayed put in 5th but Saint Etienne dropped one place to 7th due to Stade Rennais FC win.

Relegation battle:

With teams from 12th to 19th still all battling the last day was tense for half of the league.

Valenciennes FC (12th) vs SM Caen (17th) – 3-1.... The win for Valenciennes gave them the points they needed to stay up. They were in the best position of all the clubs that could have gone down. For Caen, the defeat meant if AC Ajaccio got more than a point they would go down.

Olympique Lyonnais (4th) vs OGC Nice (13th)-3-4.... A great win for Nice, coming back from 2-0 against one of the country’s best clubs. The win guaranteed them safety and what a way to cap off the season. Lyon losing didn’t have an effect on their final placing; however they will be disappointed with ending the season with a defeat against the team 9 places below them.

FC Sochaux-Montbeliard(14th) vs Olympique De Marseille(10th)- 1-0.... A 55 minute winner for the club from the east of France gave them the points they needed to survive. A slightly disappointing season compared to the year before when FC SM as they are known came 5th just outside a top 4 spot. Marseille stayed in 10th spot, 8 places below their 2010/11 finish.

Evian TG FC (9th) vs Stade Brestois 29 (15th)-0-1.... Just the one goal was enough for the 16th placed club. They survived on 41 points at the end of the season and finished in 15th. One place above their finish last year. This was their second season in the top league giving a good account of themselves for a small club. Evian have done well to finish 9th, the teams drew 2-2 in week one of the season.

Toulouse FC (8TH) vs AC Ajaccio (16th)-0-2.... AC Ajaccio started the day in the relegation zone but the 0-2 win against Toulouse got them out into 16th place thanks to SM Caen losing 3-1 to Valenciennes. The lose meant Toulouse failed to move up a place to 7th but 8th is an okay season for a town that is rugby based.

Stade Rennais FC (6th) vs Dijon FCO (19TH)-5-0.... Dijon FCO needed a miracle on the last day to stay up. They started the day 2 points off the pace and unfortunately got badly beaten by the 6th placed club. On week 1 of the season the score was 1-5 in favour of Rennais. A win for them took them 6th.

Title fight:

FC Lorient (17th) vs Paris Saint-Germain (2nd)-1-2.... A win is all PSG could do to have a chance of winning and they needed Montpellier to lose to bottom of the table AJ Auxerre. Losing meant FC Lorient came just 1 place above the relegation zone despite starting the day 14th. Down to Montpellier then.

AJ Auxerre (20th) vs Montpellier Herault SC (1st).... 16,500 spectators watched their team disappear into Ligue 2 in a match ruined by angry fans who through objects on the pitch to stop the game for 15 minutes. Montpellier must have feared the worst after 20 minutes when AJ Auxerre went 1-0 up to almost ruin Montpellier’s title party. With Montpellier just needing a point to win the title, ex Portsmouth player John Utuka scored a brace to give the team from the south of France there first Ligue 1 title and beat the big spending PSG. Chaos however did break out when Utaka put his first goal past the Auxerre keeper Olivier Sorin. Tennis balls, toilet paper and tomatoes were among the objects discarded onto the pitch. More were thrown onto the pitch 5 minutes into the second half before order was restored and the game eventually finished with the travelling Montpellier fans jubilant over there first league win. Unfortunately for the owner of the French club, he had to die his Mohawk orange and blue to celebrate the title win. Congrats to Montpellier Herault SC.

1 Montpellier Hérault SC

38 25 7 6 68 34 +34 82

2 Paris Saint-Germain

38 23 10 5 75 41 +34 79

3 LOSC Lille Métropole

38 21 11 6 72 39 +33 74

4 Olympique Lyonnais

38 19 7 12 64 51 +13 64

5 Girondins de Bordeaux

38 16 13 9 53 41 +12 61

6 Stade Rennais FC

38 17 9 12 53 44 +9 60

7 AS Saint-Etienne

38 16 9 13 49 45 +4 57

8 Toulouse FC

38 15 11 12 37 34 +3 56

9 Evian TG FC

38 13 11 14 54 55 -1 50

10 Olympique de Marseille

38 12 12 14 45 41 +4 48

11 AS Nancy Lorraine

38 11 12 15 38 48 -10 45

12 Valenciennes FC

38 12 7 19 40 50 -10 43

13 OGC Nice

38 10 12 16 39 46 -7 42

14 FC Sochaux-Montbéliard

38 11 9 18 40 60 -20 42

15 Stade Brestois 29

38 8 17 13 31 38 -7 41

16 AC Ajaccio

38 9 14 15 40 61 -21 41

17 FC Lorient

38 9 12 17 35 49 -14 39

18 SM Caen

38 9 11 18 39 59 -20 38

19 Dijon FCO

38 9 9 20 38 63 -25 36

20 AJ Auxerre

38 7 13 18 46 57 -11 34

So the season ends with new champions, 90million pounds spent by one club for a runners up medal and a team which took part in the 2010/11 Champions League dropping down to the second tier of French football. An average attendance of 18,880, 877 goals and a tie for the golden boot.

Top scorers:

Olivier Giroud-21 goals-Montpellier Herault SC

Nene-21 goals-Paris Saint-Germain

Eden Hazard-20 goals-LOSC Lille Metropole