Like many other leagues across the continent, Ligue 1 has momentarily stopped for winter to give players a rest and the groundsmen a better chance of maintaining their prided pitches. Halfway through this two week break we take a look at the race for the coveted Europa League qualification spot in France with the three Champions League places almost certainly going to title contenders PSG, Monaco and Lille.
There are just two sides currently flying the flag for French football in Europe this campaign, Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and Lyon in it’s less prestigious sister competition, the Europa League. Marseille finished bottom and pointless in their Champions League group, Bordeaux finished bottom but at least mustered up a win in the Europa League while Saint-Etienne and Nice failed to get past the qualifiers. A poor performance by French sides in the most watched club competitions in the world but they will be hoping for better this time next year.
Ligue 1, France's top division, is incredibly tight at the moment with anyone from fourth to tenth all having a realistic chance of obtaining the only Europa League spot in the league. Teams vying for it are; Saint Etienne, Bordeaux, Nantes, Reims, Marseille, Lorient and Lyon. We take a look at each side's chances in the second half of the season.
Bordeaux:
Bordeaux won the division title in 2009 back when Marouane Chamakh was firing on all cylinders in France and the Champions League for the club. Much has changed since then but unsurprisingly it’s Bordeaux, not their previous star striker, who are looking more likely to secure a place in Europe next year. They are sitting in fourth position, exactly where they want to be at the end of the season and are currently undefeated in their last seven league games. However, Les Girondins have ended 2013 on a sour note by throwing a 2-0 lead away against Marseille, conceding two goals in two second half minutes. A draw might have been taken by fans before the game but after going two up it was seen as a bad result by many especially it being against another candidate for fourth. It doesn’t get much harder for them after they arrive back from their break playing; Toulouse, Bastia, Saint Etienne, Lorient, Remis and Champions PSG twice in their opening games.
Bordeaux qualified for Europe this season through a cup competition. It has been a European campaign to forget for Francis Gillot’s men, losing all but one of the club’s six Europa League games. To rectify the situation the club will have to firstly make it into Europe again to have any chance of improving on what they achieved this year and with strikers such as Diabate and Jussie they will fancy themselves to cross the line come May despite being just a point above Saint Etienne who have played a game less.
Saint Etienne:
Ten time winners of Ligue 1 Saint-Etienne are now more of the sleeping giant of French football, like Dortmund were in Germany a few years back. Like their German counterparts La Vert seem to be on the rise once more, the club winning the Coupe de Ligue last year to place their hands on silverware for the first time in over three decades. Winning the French equivalent to the English League Cup gave them a platform to do well in Europe but they fell at the first hurdle, losing to Esbjerg fB 5-3 on aggregate in the qualifying rounds. There will be no hope qualifying through the Coupe de Ligue this time with PSG knocking them out in injury time last Wednesday. Attention has now switched to the league and they recovered from that loss with a victory against rivals for 4th place, Nantes. That victory was their fourth in five league games and included striker Mevlut Erdinc’s fifth goal in five appearances, in all competitions; ASSE not missing Patrik Aubameyang as much as they thought they would. The club are now sitting in fifth place but have a game in hand on the team above them. Win that game against strugglers Evian and the club will leapfrog Bordeaux and go two points clear. If they can keep hold of wonderkid Kurt Zouma in January then they will be considered one of the favourites.
Marseille:
An extremely poor performance in the Champions League, coupled with a poor run in Ligue 1 saw Elie Baup lose his job a couple of weeks ago. The poor performance in Europe is hard to judge as the French side were placed in the ‘group of death’ this season. This contained Arsenal, Dortmund and Napoli. One thing it did tell us is that Marseille cannot compete with the European big boys. Les Phoceens’ season has been a stop and start one, a decent opening saw them end September in third place but L’OM managed to lose every single one of their games in October and slipped down to 6th position. That is where they are currently sitting after somehow managing to claw their way back from 2 goals down against Bordeaux on Sunday. Andre-Pierre Gignac was of course vital in that comeback just as he is vital to Marseille's push on fourth, his eight goals coupled with promising youngster Florian Thauvin’s five Ligue 1 strikes are making up for some uncharacteristic defending. If the usually solid Nicolas N’koulou can find his form once again then his side can seriously mount a challenge and close the mere two point gap between them and Bordeaux.
Nantes:
Return to prominence has featured a lot in this article, showing how many different clubs have dominated French football over the years. Nantes too are one of those clubs with a rich history and have faltered in recent times, none more so than Les Canaris. The club are enjoying this current season but have had some dark times fall upon them. The club, who share the record title tally with Saint-Etienne, were relegated at the end of the 2006-2007 season and were consigned to Ligue 2 after 44 years away from that division. The club bounced straight back up only to be relegated once more the year after. This is their first season back since promotion last year and the club who have produced greats such as Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps and Mickael Landreau are doing better than expected. Fillip Djordjevic is the 6th highest goalscorer in Ligue 1 but has gone off the boil and hasn't managed to find the net since gameweek 13. This barren run for the striker has unsurprisingly coincided with Nantes’ dip in goals, scoring just four in six. The team has done well thus far but many will see the depth of the squad and the lack of Ligue 1 experience as their downfall.
Reims:
Reims could be viewed as the club least likely to reach that elusive fourth spot out of the 10 we are reviewing. The team are not blessed with goalscorers, Prince Oniangue leads the way with five goals and their defensive record is not one to be marvelled at conceding 21 goals so far leaving them joint 9th in the defense table. This normally would be a good thing but they are behind all but one of their rivals for fourth. In their last game they brushed aside a struggling Ajaccio side 4-1 after a formidable second half display including two fantastic volleys from Gaetan Charbonnier. Hubert Fournier’s side may not have wanted the winter break to come so soon as it has interrupted a run of four Ligue 1 games unbeaten. They will need to muster up this form pretty sharpish once they return, competing in some tough clashes come January, they will face Marseille in the French FA Cup before playing Lille, Lyon and Nantes is 13 days.
Lorient:
From a team who have to rely on goals from all over the pitch, to one who can call upon a striker who can win the team a game even if they are not at their best. FC Lorient have made steady progress since arriving back on the Ligue 1 scene in 2006 and finished in 8th position last year, a place in Europe would really signify a new dawn at the Stade du Moustoir. Laurent Koscielny’s former team have spent the majority of their 87 year history battling in the French second division but this could be their rise to prominence and see them finally asserting themselves as a Ligue 1 club. If they wish to do this then Lorient’s medical team will have to do all they can to keep top scorer Vincent Aboubakar fit and ready for action. The Cameroon International is third top scorer, behind formidable PSG forwards Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani, with a grand total of 11 league goals to his name so far. The club nicknamed Les Merlus must demand more from former Arsenal striker Jeremie Aliadiere, the Frenchmen scored 15 goals last season but is struggling to rediscover his goalscoring touch and has netted just twice since August. The club located in the far West of France our on excellent form and are unbeaten in the last seven matches, winning five of them. Former player and father of Yoann, Christian Gourcuff has been manager of Lorient since 2003 and his side now lay in 9th position. Take maximum points from their next three games, which is not unfeasible, then the 58-year-old may be on the verge of completing his finest managerial achievement to date.
Lyon:
Olympique Lyonnais are the undisputed Kings of French football in the modern era. They won a record seven league titles in a row during 2002-2008, these seven titles were joined by a Coupe de France, a Coupe de Ligue and six Trophee des Champions. Such dominance may never be seen again with so many teams capable of beating the sides sitting at the top of the tree. The runs in Europe at this time saw Lyon reach the Quarter-Final stages of the champions League three times and Les Gones have just recently made it into the round of 32 in the Europa League. Without a single team managing to defeat the French giants they finished top of their group and will play against Ukrainians FC Chornomorets Odesa in the next round. Lyon’s greatest chance of qualifying for the competition may be winning a domestic cup in France, they still have a chance of winning the two. The team are languishing in 10th place, still top half but only just, but just six points away from the team that ended their Ligue 1 dominance back in 2009. In truth, they should be doing better with the squad that they have. They boast heavily scouted talent such as Clement Grenier, Maxime Gonalons and Alexandre Lacazette which will give them a decent shout of nipping in there later on in the season. If they want to do so they will have to up their game, giving away two goal leads in both of their last two fixtures.
Some optimistic football fanatics may not even rule out Nice and Rennes who are three and four places above the dreaded relegation zone it is that close in the division. These are the seven teams that will seriously be competing for a spot in the Europa League going into the end half of the season. It is going to be extremely close throughout the remainder of the campaign which should make for some dramatic games to heat up Ligue 1 on the cold days when the teams return.