The final day of the Ligue 2 season, where six clubs are battling for the title
Six Ligue 2 clubs will go into their final match of the season on Friday night knowing they can win the title. With just three points separating the top six clubs, there are 30 different combinations of clubs that can finish in the top two and guarantee themselves automatic promotion to Ligue 1. With a promotion play-off available for the third-placed club, things are even more complicated and exciting.
Ligue 2 has a habit of throwing up an intriguing battle on the final day of the season. Le Havre were denied a place in the promotion play-off last year by the smallest of margins: they could not be separated from Metz on points or goal difference but missed out on goals scored. This year’s title race is even closer. To follow it, you will have to keep an eye on six matches: Strasbourg v Bourg-Péronnas, Reims v Amiens, Sochaux v Troyes, Lens v Niort, Brest v Ajaccio and Laval v Nîmes.
The teams as they stand
The Ligue 2 table
The six contenders
1st: Strasbourg, 64 points, +15 goal difference
As competition in French football has strengthened in recent years, a fair share of big-city clubs have fallen down the league ladder. No more so than Strasbourg, who go into their final match of the season, at home to 14th-place Bourg-Péronnas, knowing a win will guarantee them a second successive title. A few clubs have pulled off back-to-back promotions in recent seasons. Évian won the National (the French division) title in 2010 and followed that up by becoming Ligue 2 champions in 2011 and Gazélec Ajaccio pulled off promotions in 2014 and 2015. Thierry Laurey was in charge of Gazélec Ajaccio when they moved through the divisions and he is now aiming to earn promotion in his first season with Strasbourg. The club have not been in Ligue 1 since their relegation in 2008, so this is a big chance for the 1995 Intertoto Cup winners to re-establish themselves as a force in French football.
2nd: Amiens, 63 points, +17 goal difference
The hometown of recently elected president, Emmanuel Macron, Amiens are hoping to pull off a miracle. Like Strasbourg, they were promoted from the third division last summer. They have relied on an indomitable team spirit and the tenacious midfield duo of Tanguy Ndombele and Guessouma Fofana to provide a series of surprises this season. France Football magazine called them “goats” in their Ligue 2 season preview, but manager Christophe Pélissier’s decision to stick the article on the dressing room wall as motivation encapsulates their combative, gung-ho approach. A win would take them into Ligue 1 for the first time – as long as Troyes do not better their goal difference – but they face the toughest fixture of the final six: a trip to Reims, who were relegated just last season. Playing in Ligue 1 would be a fairytale for Amiens – there is currently just one bus from the city centre to their stadium on matchdays.
3rd: Troyes, 63 points, +15 goal difference
A perennial yo-yo club, Troyes have a reputation for flourishing in Ligue 2 and then performing dreadfully when given an opportunity in Ligue 1. They possess perhaps the most technical player in the league, 40-year-old attacking midfielder Benjamin Nivet, and have the necessary motivation to return to the big time: they want to erase the memory of their previous Ligue 1 campaign, in 2015-16, when they recorded the worst points tally in the division’s history: 18 points from 38 games.
4th: Lens, 62 points, +17 goal difference
The last time Lens were promoted from Ligue 2, in the 2015-16 season, they played their home matches in Amiens as their usual ground, the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, was being renovated for Euro 2016. The club are not exactly enjoying home comforts this season; they are one of the few sides in the country who have collected more points on their travels (two, to be exact), a quirk that can perhaps be explained by the support they are given by their famously outstanding away fans. The club is rich with history and the town breathes football, so their return to the top flight would be a victory for French football – even though manager Alain Casanova has been widely criticised for their rather apathetic football this season. If they do go up, Casanova will owe a debt of thanks to journeyman Habib Habibou for injecting some life into his team.
5th: Brest, 62 points, +10 goal difference
Brest have been top of the league for 25 weeks this season but they go into the final day of the campaign in fifth. They failed to pull away from the rest of the pack and lost three matches on the spin against direct promotion opponents – Amiens, Troyes and Nîmes. The good news is that they are at home to ninth-place Gazélec Ajaccio, who have nothing left to play for this season. A win is essential but, if results elsewhere do not go their way, they will have the biggest regrets at the end of the evening.
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6th: Nîmes, 61 points, +17 goal difference
Nîmes began last season with an eight-points deduction after an unsavoury match-fixing affair but miraculously managed to stay in the league after a hard-fought relegation battle. They were not on the radar for promotion a few months ago but an incredible run of results in 2017 – they have lost just two of their last 18 matches in the league – has put them in the mix for the title. Nîmes have not finished above eighth in Ligue 2 since the turn of the century, so promotion would be a massive achievement for the club. They face a trip to Laval, who are already relegated, so will be expecting to pick up three points.
This is an article from Get French Football News
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