PARIS: Olympique de Marseille beat Racing Strasbourg 4-0 and pipped AS Monaco to second place in Ligue 1 to qualify for the Champions League group stage with help from RC Lens as the season ended with the news Kylian Mbappe was staying at Paris St Germain.

Monaco go into the Champions League third qualifying round after Ignatius Ganago’s last-gasp goal in a 2-2 draw at Lens denied them runners-up spot in Saturday’s final round of games.

All eyes were on the Parc des Princes for the announcement that Mbappe had signed a new three-year deal with the French champions, who demolished Metz 5-0 with the France forward scoring a hat-trick to finish Ligue 1 top scorer with 28 goals.

The result sent Metz into Ligue 2 along with Girondins de Bordeaux, who were relegated after 30 consecutive years in the top flight despite a 4-2 win at Stade Brestois as they ended up bottom of the table.

St Etienne salvaged a 1-1 draw at Nantes to finish 18th and set up a relegation/promotion play-off with AJ Auxerre.

Marseille ended up second with 71 points, 15 behind PSG, who were crowned champions last month, two ahead of Monaco who looked like hanging on to second place until Ganago’s goal six minutes into stoppage time left them deflated.

Benoit Badiashile had cancelled out Przemyslaw Frankowski’s opener for the hosts in the 34th from close range before Wissam Ben Yedder’s second-half goal put Monaco on track for second spot.

But Ganago’s strike from inside the box in the dying seconds denied Monaco the 10th consecutive win they needed.

Marseille prevailed in the race for direct Champions League qualification with a Gerson double and goals by Cengiz Under and Cedric Bakambu but it was Ganago’s goal for Lens that effectively sealed second place for them.

Stade Rennais, who had long been in the running for a Champions League spot, ended up fourth and will play in the Europa League after Serhou Guirassy’s stoppage-time goal salvaged a 2-2 draw at Lille.

In Paris, shortly after announcing together with club president Nasser Al Khelaifi that he was staying until 2025, Mbappe scored an early double before Neymar netted his 100th goal for PSG to put the hosts 3-0 up after 32 minutes.

The 23-year-old Mbappe added another five minutes into the second half after benefiting from some poor defending and Metz were reduced to 10 men when Boubacar Traore picked up a second yellow card just before the hour.

Angel Di Maria, playing his last game for PSG, netted the fifth in the 68th before breaking into tears.

“I would like to thank the President, Nasser Al Khelaifi, for his trust, his understanding and his patience,” said Mbappe.

“I hope I’m going to be able to continue to do what I like most — winning football matches and trophies with all of you.”

His decision ends months of speculation surrounding arguably the hottest property in world football.

Real Madrid had pursued Mbappe for months and had reportedly agreed a deal which would have included a signing-on fee of 150 million euros.

Final standings

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

Paris SG 38 26 8 4 90 36 86

Marseille 38 21 8 9 63 38 71

Monaco 38 20 9 9 65 40 69

Rennes 38 20 6 12 82 40 66

Nice 38 20 7 11 52 36 66

Strasbourg 38 17 12 9 60 43 63

Lens 38 17 11 10 62 48 62

Lyon 38 17 11 10 66 51 61

Nantes 38 15 10 13 55 48 55

Lille 38 14 13 11 48 48 55

Brest 38 13 9 16 49 57 48

Reims 38 11 13 14 43 44 46

Montpellier 38 12 7 19 49 61 43

Angers 38 10 11 17 44 55 41

Troyes 38 9 11 18 37 53 38

Lorient 38 8 12 18 35 63 36

Clermont 38 9 9 20 38 69 36

St-Etienne 38 7 11 20 42 77 32

Metz 38 6 13 19 35 69 31

Bordeaux 38 6 13 19 52 91 31

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2022