Strasbourg on the way to the Champions League
Champion of France in 1979, the eastern Alsatian club neighboring Germany and Switzerland saw its best season since winning the league trophy for the only time. Supported by the objectives of the experiment Kevin Gameiro, Ludovic Ajorque and Africa Cup of Nations winner Habib DialloStrasbourg sit fourth in Ligue 1 and at a nice point.
They are the second top scorer in the division (46) behind Paris Saint-Germain and the only team in Europe’s top five leagues besides Manchester City with four players on at least seven goalsonce Adrian Thomasson is added to the mixture. Seven wins out of the last nine matches propelled Strasbourg into the Champions League, with Stephan recreating the success he had at Rennes two years ago when he led them to third place, the best result in their history.
“You could say that we have fulfilled our first objective: to have enough points to be in Ligue 1 again next season,” said Stephan, 41, after last week’s game. 1-0 win on Angers. Strasbourg are one point away from equaling last year’s tally of 42, when a struggling season saw the club’s fight against relegation come to an end last weekend. “We are not going to win every game until the end,” Diallo said on Friday. “But we will do everything to get as many points as possible… We want to keep our momentum and not just because we reached 41 points.”
Defender Frédéric Guilbert said recently that he felt Strasbourg was not “to be taken seriously“, but they can notably take matters into their own hands with the visit of Nice next weekend. But first, a trip to a resurgent Saint-Etienne, whose series of three victories under Pascal Dupraz has lifted the 10 times champions of France from the foot of the table.
Paris Saint Germain, 13 point lead at the top, meet in Nantes on Saturday boosted by a 1-0 victory against Real Madrid thanks to Kylian Mbappe’s stoppage-time goal. Marseilles can strengthen their grip on second place against Clermont on Sunday while Nice hosts Angers. David Guion begins his lifesaving mission down Bordeaux against Monaco after taking over for the rest of the season following the dismissal of Vladimir Petkovic.
Player to watch: Kevin Gameiro
The former France international has scored five times in his last four games, including a brilliant volley last weekend against Angers, to lead Strasbourg’s assault on the top three. Gameiro, now 34 years oldreturned to Strasbourg, the club where he made his professional debut in 2005, in July after eight years in Spain with Sevilla, Atletico Madrid and Valencia. After a slow start to his second spell, former PSG striker is up to nine goals for the campaign and looking for a wise investment for a team that hadn’t been in fourth place this deep in a season since 1997.
Key statistics
15 – PSG have scored the most points in the last 15 minutes of games this season, eight of which have come via goals in the 90th minute or later.
61 – Goals conceded by Bordeaux this campaign. It’s the worst defensive record in Europe’s top five leagues.
6 – Arkadiusz Milik scored six goals in as many games in Europeone more than his total in Ligue 1 this season despite the Pole scoring four times in his last two outings for Marseille.
Timetable (every hour CET)
Friday
Lille-Metz (21:00)
Saturday
Lens-Lyon (5 p.m.), Nantes-Paris Saint-Germain (9 p.m.)
Sunday
Nice v Angers (1:00 p.m.), Lorient v Montpellier, Reims v Brest, Rennes v Troyes, Saint-Etienne v Strasbourg (all at 3:00 p.m.), Bordeaux v Monaco (5:05 p.m.), Marseille v Clermont (8:45 p.m.)