European OM, Monaco, Rennes and Nice, ASSE roadblocker
L’Olympic Marseille qualified for the Champions League on Saturday and AS Monaco, Stade Rennais FC and OGC Nice also validated a European ticket after the last day of a Ligue 1 Uber Eats which lost the Girondins de Bordeaux as well as Metz and sees AS Saint-Etienne snatch a reprieve.
Falling last week from their 2nd place directly qualifying for the group stage of the C1, OM (2nd, 71 points) left no chance to RC Strasbourg Alsace (6th, 63 pts), beaten 4-0 in a boiling Orange Velodrome.
Held in check at Lens (2-2), AS Monaco (3rd, 69 pts) gives up 2nd place and will have to go through the preliminary rounds, like last year. Behind, Stade Rennais (4th, 66 pts) was hot: led twice to Lille on a double from Timothy Weah, the Red and Blacks came back to score twice, by Benjamin Bourigeaud and Serhou Guirassy.
They were almost overtaken by a stunning OGC Nice team (5th, 66 pts too but a lower goal difference): led 2-0 from the 18th minute in Reims, Christophe Galtier’s men snatched their ticket for the Europa League Conference thanks to a hat-trick from Andy Delort in the second half (2-3). They thus succeed on the wire the surprise Strasbourg (6th, 63 pt), which remains at the gates of its European dream.
The Greens snatch their ticket for the Barrages
At the bottom of the table, theAS Saint-Etienne (18th, 32 pts) obtained a reprieve by snatching the place of play-off thanks to a goal from Romain Hamouma synonymous with a draw (1-1) in Nantes. The Greens will face AJ Auxerre next week in a bid to stay in the top flight.
It’s a cold shower for FC Metz (19th, 31 pts), who had pulled out of the red zone but returned there definitively, beaten 5-0 by PSG on a hat-trick from Kylian Mbappé (24th, 28th, 50th ) and goals from Neymar and Angel Di Maria. And there was no miracle for the Girondins de Bordeaux, who needed an avalanche of goals against Stade Brestois 29: they called up Ligue 1 Uber Eats by winning largely in Brest (2-4 ), but it was still a long way off.