Who will win the entertaining race to finish third in Ligue 1 this season?

Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco will battle for the title, leaving five clubs to fight for the third Champions League place on offer in the division

By Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football News

Marseille’s 4-2 win at Nice was a somewhat calamitous affair, riddled with poor defending and punctuated by the midfielder Luiz Gustavo’s sending off. The intensity, only to be expected for one of Ligue 1’s bigger rivalries, was increased by crowd trouble during the match, including fans brawling in the stands and objects being thrown on to the pitch. None of this is anything new in France, particularly in a derby match, but the result, which lifted Marseille into third place, is perhaps more important than the circumstances of the match. Not, as one might have hoped in looking at the league table, as a validation of the Marseille owner Frank McCourt’s “Champions Project” but as a clear indictment of the paucity of – if not quality – consistency in Ligue 1 this season.

Right behind Marseille, with their clutch of high-profile, albeit ageing, names, sit Nantes and Caen, a pair of clubs whose summer windows featured a distinct lack of recognisable names. This is not an affront to either of those sides; Nantes’ defensive organisation under Claudio Ranieri, combined with the class of Ciprian Tatarusanu in goal, have allowed them to be consistently stubborn opponents, allowing only two goals in their last seven matches. Caen have taken that edict even further, a somewhat surprising turn, given how open the manager Patrice Garande’s sides usually are, winning five of six behind the league’s best defence. Both have also been helped by the fixture computer and one would do well to recall Angers’ fine start to the 2015-16 season as proof of the sustainability of these sorts of teams in the division.

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