PARIS: Monaco, locked in a three-way tussle with St Etienne and Olympique Marseille, booked the third and final French ticket to next season’s Champions League thanks to a 1-0 win over Lorient in the final round of Ligue 1 matches on Saturday.

With newly-crowned champion Paris St Germain and Olympique Lyon already guaranteed the first two spots, Monaco travelled to Brittany knowing a win would be enough to keep Marseille and St Etienne at bay for a place in the third qualifying round of Europe’s top competition.

And a first-half goal by Yannick Ferreira Carrasco was enough to help the Principality side, who reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League this season, secure a third place finish with 71 points.

“I am happy for the players and the fans. Because Monaco showed they were the third best team in France this year. And they proved it on the pitch by going from the bottom of the league to third place,” said Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim.

“I believe it’s well deserved. We did our job well. With­out our bad start of the season, we could have been even higher.”

PSG, who were crowned champions last weekend, celebrated in front of their home crowd with a 3-2 win over Stade de Reims. Edi­nson Cavani struck twice and Adrien Rabiot grabbed the other goal for the Parisians.

Lyon, who secured second place last Saturday, rounded off a spectacular season with a 1-0 win at Stade Rennais thanks to Clinton Njie’s late winner.

Monaco stayed ahead of Marseille, fourth on 69 points after their 3-0 home win against Bastia thanks to goals by Dimitri Payet, Lucas Ocampos and Alexander Djiku’s own goal.

Marcelo Bielsa’s players put on a fine offensive display at the Stade Velodrome but the win was not enough to secure a podium finish for Marseille, who concluded the first half on the season on top of the table before a disastrous run of four consecutive losses in April damaged the club’s ambitions.

They will play in the Europa League next season although they will need to go through the playoffs should Ligue 2 side AJ Auxerre beat PSG in the French Cup final next Saturday. “It’s frustrating because there was not much to change to succeed,” said Bielsa.

St Etienne are fifth following their 2-1 home win against En Avant Guingamp, and will need to go through at least a playoff tie to enter the Europa League depending on the French Cup final result. They trail Marseille on goal difference.

Final standings

(Tabulated under: played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points)

Paris St Germain 38 24 11 3 83 36 83 Olympique Lyon 38 22 9 7 72 33 75 Monaco 38 20 11 7 51 26 71 Olympique Marseille 38 21 6 11 76 42 69 St Etienne 38 19 12 7 51 30 69 Girondins Bordeaux 38 17 12 9 47 44 63 Montpellier HSC 38 16 8 14 46 39 56 Lille 38 16 8 14 43 42 56 Stade Rennes 38 13 11 14 35 42 50 En Avant Guingamp 38 15 4 19 41 55 49 Nice 38 13 9 16 44 53 48 Bastia 38 12 11 15 37 46 47 Caen 38 12 10 16 54 55 46 Nantes 38 11 12 15 29 40 45 Stade de Reims 38 12 8 18 47 66 44 FC Lorient 38 12 7 19 44 50 43 Toulouse 38 12 6 20 43 64 42 Evian 38 11 4 23 41 62 37 Metz 38 7 9 22 31 61 30 Racing Lens 38 7 8 23 32 61 29

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2015

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