Like many others who watch French football, I have a soft spot for Auxerre. Not just because I love Burgundy, but because the football team – they were managed for 36 years by the same man, Guy Roux – seemed for so long a stable fixture of the French game.
Tonight I found it in my heart to loathe them, before remembering that even if a team has a big toerag element within its support – fill in the missing letters in M***w**l or L***s or C**d*f* – it is necessarily a toerag club.
With their barrages of tennis balls and toilet paper, a significant minority of Auxerre fans to be known from now on as la racaille or les voyous twice stopped the game against Montpellier. This could have swayed the outcome of the championship since all matches kicked off the at the same time. The effect on Montpellier players’ nerves must have been unbearable.
Yes, like much of France -and also my Mag Twitter follower Ninème, a great fan of French footie – I wanted Montpellier to win or draw, all that was needed to secure the title and stop PSG claiming it with all their Qatari gold.
And yes, if I were an Auxerre fan, I’d be upset and even angry about going down, a fate sealed before this game.
But I am delighted the yobbish interruptions merely delayed the result and therefore, for a short time, the identity of the league title winners. In the event, PSG’s win at Lorient mattered for nothing; since Montpellier also won, they took the league by three points.
It was soon after the second disruption at Auxerre that we heard confirmation that PSG had won their game. With Auxerre-Montpellier at 1-1, we knew then – with the two frontrunners on equal points and goal difference – that an Auxerre winner would send the trophy to Paris.
Thanks heavens it didn’t happen. Bravo Montpellier, MHSC or whatever you wish to call supertubby Louis Nicollin’s club.
But I have no reasont to thank anyone for poor Dijon’s relegation. Patrice Carteron’s team needed to do better than other threatened clubs to survive but succumbed to a 5-0 drubbing at Rennes.
And now? Do we buy Giroud or Utaka, scorer of both Montpellier goals, or do we settle for Grant Holt? Discuss …
See also: http//safc.blog/2012/05/french-fancies-haway-montpellier-kick-sand-in-psgs-faces/
Grant Holt? WOL!!!
Great achievement for Montpellier last night, and to not only hold their nerve but score again with that time delay it was a great show of character by them.
Hazard played his last game for Lille but didn’t commit to which club he is signing for next season, the big tease. I watched for ten minutes as the entire crowd just stood and applauded this 21-year-old as he waved and said his goodbyes. Ignoring the fact he scored a hat-trick against a pretty poor Nancy defence, he has been a phenomenal talent this year and to command the respect from the fans that he has at his tender age shows what a great talent he is. Lille will be hard pressed to replace him.
I’d have more sympathy for Dijon and Cateron but losing 5-0 to Rennes is a pretty difficult task and they don’t really have anyone else to blame but themselves. Their’s and Caen’s limp performances mean they go down with already relegated Auxerre, Sochaux and Ajaccio complete the great escapes and survive for another season. That of course means we get Ajaccio v Bastia next season in the Corsican derby.
Nice to see Lyon’s time in the sun appears to be up. Marseille, too, are struggling. Unfortunately you assume if PSG go away and actually sign a striker – Gonzalo Higauin touted – then they will be too strong next season to be held off like they were this one, depending on how Menez, Nene and Pastore all combine next season, or if they can as it indicators this year suggest they can’t.
An okay season for Rennes, my team of interest in Ligue 1, but the semi final loss to Quevilly and one Bordeaux goal denying them European qualification on the final day will smart. Not to mention M’Vila will be off, and possibly followed by Kembo-Ekoko and Mangane means there will be a big rebuilding job to be done next season.
A thoroughly entertaining season though, and I can’t wait for next year already!