The 2021-2022 Ligue 1 season will end next Saturday (9 p.m.) with a new 10-game multiplex on the 38th day. Six teams are waiting to know the outcome in the race for Europe, where Metz and Saint-Etienne will compete at a distance for the place of play-off.
Practically everything remains to be done before the last day of Ligue 1. The multiplex this Saturday did not render a final verdict even if it made it possible to witness several upheavals. However, after a draw against Lorient (0-0), Bordeaux is practically condemned to Ligue 2, where the Merlus are definitively saved.
The race for Europe: everything is still possible
In the race for Europe, OM carried out a very bad operation by losing on the ground of Rennes (2-0). Jorge Sampaoli’s team dropped their second place, in favor of AS Monaco, winner of their ninth game in a row against Brest (4-2). For the Monegasques, it will be necessary to continue on this series on the lawn of Lens to obtain a directly qualifying ticket for the group stage of the next Champions League. Winner at Troyes (3-1), Lens is currently in seventh place and can still dream of the top 5.
Four teams still in the race for Europe will meet since OM will receive Strasbourg. Victorious against Clermont (1-0), the Alsatian club has the opportunity to retain its fifth place depending on its result. At best, they will finish in fourth place but they could also slip to seventh place.
With a much better goal difference than OM, Rennes (4th) can also hope for a favorable scenario that would allow them to reach the podium. Bruno Genesio’s players will go to Lille, which played a bad game in Nice (3-1) but which has nothing left to eat, except to end the exercise on a good note . The Aiglons will travel to Reims, where they will have to obtain a good result to return to the top 5. After having already missed a chance in the Coupe de France final, Nice no longer has the right to make mistakes.
The program
Lens-Monaco
Marseille-Strasbrug
Lille-Rennes
Reims-Nice
Classification:
2- Monaco: 68 points (+25) (qualifying spot for the Champions League group stage)
3- Marseille: 68 points (+21) (qualifying place for the 3rd preliminary round of the Champions League)
4- Rennes: 65 points (+42) (qualifying spot for the Europa League group stage)
5- Strasbourg: 63 points (+21) (qualifying place for the play-offs to access the group stage of the Europa Conference League)
6- Nice: 63 points (+15)
7- Lens: 61 points (+14)
A duel between Metz and Saint-Etienne for the place of barrage
The situation is now clearer in the race to maintain. Despite their defeat against Strasbourg, Clermont definitely saved their place in the top flight. It is the same for Lorient, which hooked Bordeaux. With a difference of 12 goals to make up against Metz, Bordeaux will almost certainly descend into Ligue 2. Arrived along the way, David Guion did not hide after this sad news evening: « The season has been so bad that ‘we deserve what’s happening to us. »
Because the race to maintain now boils down to a duel to know the future roadblocker. Woe to the loser, therefore, who will leave the elite in principle with Bordeaux. Thanks to two wins in a row, first against OL then against Angers (1-0), Metz recovered this 18th place at the Greens, beaten by Reims (3-1). Dejected but still determined to save his team, Pascal Dupraz deplores the physical but also mental level of his players, who remain on four defeats in a row.
ASSE will go to Nantes, which has nothing left to play for, but Antoine Kombouaré has already predicted, logically, that he would give « no gift » to his future opponent. Frédéric Antonetti’s players will have another major challenge with a trip to the Parc des Princes, against PSG. Already crowned champion, the Parisian club punished Montpellier (4-0) and necessarily appears to be a major obstacle for the Messins. As a reminder, the play-off will face a Ligue 2 team, namely the winner of the meeting between Auxerre and Sochaux or Paris FC, who will already challenge each other in a pre-dam.
The program
ASSE-Nantes
PSG-Metz
Brest-Bordeaux
Classification:
18th – Metz: 31 points (-29) (barrage place)
19th – Saint-Etienne: 31 points (-35)
20th – Bordeaux: 28 points (-41)
· The Dam Program
Tuesday May 17 (8:30 p.m.): Paris FC-Sochaux
Friday May 20 (8:30 p.m.): Auxerre – play-off winner
Thursday 26 May (7 p.m.): barrage L2 – 18th L1
Sunday May 29 (7 p.m.): 18th L1 – barrage L2
#Champions #League #maintenance #stakes #boiling #day
