Lyon and Auxerre sealed prized tickets for next season’s Champions League as Marseille capped their French title triumph with a 2-0 victory over Grenoble Saturday.
With Marseille already crowned champions and Grenoble, Boulogne and Le Mans relegated, the only issues to be settled on the final day of league action involved qualification for Europe.
And those stakes set the stage for plenty of drama with Lyon, Lille and Auxerre trading places throughout the night as they fought respective battles for one of the two remaining spots giving entry to Europe’s premier club competition.
In the end Lyon, who beat Le Mans 2-0, finished second behind Marseille with Auxerre, 2-1 winners at Sochaux, pipping Lille, beaten 2-1 at Lorient, to the third and final Champions League place.
Meanwhile, two of the league’s biggest names — Bordeaux and Paris Saint Germain — saw their respective campaigns fizzle out.
PSG won the French Cup only two weeks ago with a 1-0 extra-time win over Monaco, but any sense of achievement was blunted by a humbling 3-1 defeat at home to an impressive Montpellier side.
Montpellier held on to fifth place, and with it a place in next season’s Europa League.
Last season’s champions Bordeaux will miss out on Europe after their 4-3 defeat away to Lens.
Auxerre coach Jean Fernandez insisted that he will still be at the club next season despite being tipped to take over at Bordeaux should Laurent Blanc be installed as France coach after the World Cup.
“This was not my last match with Auxerre,” he said. “I have been with this team for a year and a half. We are making progress here and I am happy to continue.”
Lille, sitting second before the match with a one-point lead on Lyon, had taken a step towards cementing their place in the Champions League when Ricardo Costa opened the scoring in the 33rd minute.
Lorient, however, were soon back on level terms four minutes later as sloppy defending allowed Kevin Gameiro to steal in and drive the ball past Mickael Landreau.
Yann Jouffre’s 66th minute strike for Lorient stunned Lille and left them with a 2-1 defeat which, coupled with Cedric Hengbart’s 89th minute winner for Auxerre, his second of the game, dropped the northerners two places to fourth and in the Europa League.
“Despite the defeat it’s been a great campaign and in another season 70 points could have made us champions and we would have been in the Champions League,” said Lille coach Rudi Garcia.
At Lyon the prospect of playing already relegated Le Mans held no particular fears for the Stade Gerland faithful.
Still, when Bafetimbi Gomis fired home for Lyon on the stroke of half-time, a goal which looked suspiciously off-side, it naturally caused uproar among the Le Mans players.
They failed to react with goals, however, and Miralem Pjanic put the result beyond doubt in the 68th minute when he doubled Lyon’s lead.
Marseille meanwhile finished the season with the league and cup double and already looking forward to next season.
Didier Deschamps’ side opened the scoring thanks to a Mamadou Niang penalty in the 41st minute, and fellow forward Hatem Ben Arfa signed his season off with a superbly-taken strike in the 89th minute.
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