Matchday 37 - Marseille is in the Champions League! Suspense Still not Over Elsewhere

By: Sam | May 21st, 2007

First off, sorry for waiting until today to bring you this palpitating and intense piece of Ligue 1 info. Laziness, The Simpsons and the fact that I had written it but my internet shut down for a split second are to blame. But enough of this technologico-analyctical babble. Let’s get down to it. Marseille’s in the Champions League! That’s right, two clubs’ losses are another’s gain, shown here by Bordeaux and Lens’ draws that helped Marseille gain a four-point lead over them with one game to go. I hope you know that this means that nothing will stop them from finishing second, and I also hope you know that second place equals the UCL group stages. Good. Now how did this come to be? Let’s find out!

The obstacle for OM was a great one. It went by the name of Saint-Étienne. By the way, if you know anything about Saint-Étienne, you’ll know that playing them in their home stadium without being intimidated by the crowd is just about as easy as making babies using your elbows and a can of tomato sauce. The match started off a bit slow, save for two diving cautions issued in the first fifteen minutes. Nil-nil at halftime (but also nil-nil in the other two matches) was a scoreline that made everyone’s heart beat a dozen more times a second. The exciting second half got its first kick on 54 minutes thanks to one hell of a right footed blast from Mister Djib Cissé. Fifteen minutes later, leave it to the magic of Pascal Feindouno to equalize on a eerily similar strike, but this time going in the opposite direction and beating Cédric Carrasso. With draws all-around again, OM fans were confident but anguished. No more! Five minutes from time, it was Mathieu Valbuena, “the other Ribéry” who notched the first goal of his career and possibly the most important when he finished off a chain of touches from his teammates and poked it past Viviani to secure the win. That was that. More on post-game activity later on.

Let’s remember: Just because Marseille will finish in second place doesn’t mean that there’s no more Champions League spots available! No sir, there’s still the third spot, equivalent to a third-round qualifiying tie which will probably end up being against some Swedish or Bulgarian team. As of right now, the spot belongs to RC Lens, who could have had a two-point cushion whilst occupying it, but instead they drew at home to the barely-staying-up Nice. It could have been worse, as Nice’s Rod Fanni hit the post on a powerful shot ten minutes from full-time.

Behind them, tied on points but considerably trailing on goal differential are Bordeaux, who if the season ended right now would defend their honour in the UEFA Cup. They too, drew to Marseille’s joy. Le Mans were the opponents, and the latter side got the first goal on the hour mark via Grafite, who took a fine ball from Sessegnon and slid it past Ramé. Bordeaux equalized nine minutes later, from a cheeky lob from Perea. Like the press were saying, Bordeaux were lucky to get away with a draw, since Le Mans dominated like nobody’s business in the second half.

But all of a sudden… there’s another contender! That would be Rennes, who are now in fifth, but only a point behind Bordeaux and Lens. The outsiders won in the Breton derby by the paltry scoreline of 4-1, with goals from Melchiot, Cheyrou, Utaka and Jeunechamp, against one from Ewolo from Lorient. Watch out!

And what about Lyon? Well, they lost against Monaco. More on this in detail from Inara at the Lyon Offside.

To cap it off, we have our last relegated team. Troyes, after a loss to PSG, on the strength of two goals from the ageless Pauleta, now the top scorer in the league.

Other scores: Nancy 5-2 Sochaux; Auxerre 2-1 Lille; Nantes 0-0 Toulouse; Sedan 1-1 Valenciennes